New track from Jóhann Jóhannsson

An American magnate builds a doomed utopia in the depths of the Brazilian rainforest. A Victorian poetess laments the death of Pan. A pagan rocket scientist blows himself up in his Californian garage. A crippled German physicist draws up the equations which can make faster than light travel possible, unseen by the rest of the world.

Jóhann Jóhannsson is an Icelandic composer and musician. His spellbinding new album, Fordlândia, draws these tantalising threads together, weaving a musical tapestry of hypnotic richness and surprising emotional depth.

The first glimpse of the album is the cinematic track The Rocket Builder:

The Rocket Builder [mp3]


His music is stately, slow-building and hauntingly melodic music, frequently combining electronic processing with classical orchestrations, that has been quietly bewitching listeners for the last few years.

His first solo album Englabörn was originally released in 2002 and re-released on 4AD last year, getting an 8.0 review on Pitchfork. The album was derived from music that Jóhann wrote for an Icelandic play using string quartet, piano, organ, glockenspiel and percussion. These elements were processed and manipulated, adding delicate electronic accents to the otherwise entirely acoustic recordings.

Jóhann's first release for 4AD, IBM 1401 - A User's Manual (2006), involved a sixty-piece string orchestra recorded at Prague's legendary Barrandov sound stage and incorporated electronics and vintage reel-to-reel recordings of a 1960's IBM 1401 mainframe computer and its accompanying instruction manual.

Fordlândia is Jóhann Jóhannsson's most complete and beautiful piece of music to date; a fascinating, immersive and deeply rewarding web of ideas and melodies, which is sure to win him a legion of new listeners. The album is due out November 1.

You can hear more tracks from the album on his myspace: myspace.com/johannjohannsson