Artist : J≤hann J≤hannsson
Title : And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound
Genre : Classical
Year : 2009
Date : 12/2009
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks : 13
Label : Type Records
Source : Vinyl
Encoder : Lame 3.97
Length : 40:19 min
Size : 56,10 MB
Tracklist:
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01.Theme 03:22
02.City Building 02:43
03.Entering The City 00:54
04.The Flat 03:32
05.Rainwater 01:58
06.Siren Song 01:54
07.Pods 03:26
08.The Gift 02:44
09.Dying City 02:02
10.City Building (Alternate Version) 04:00
11.Escape 05:42
12.Inside The Pods 01:50
13.End Theme 06:12
-------
40:19 min
From Boomkat:
*Strictly limited vinyl edition - a CD
version of this album will only be
released in April 2010* You might be
surprised by the number of film
soundtracks J≤hann J≤hannsson has
completed over the course of his career.
While his hugely popular and influential
catalogue of work for labels like Touch
and 4AD tends to dictate how we think
about his music, the volume of
documentary, short and feature film
scores he's penned is prolific to say
the least. Even his most widely
celebrated work to date, Englab÷rn, was
conceived as a theatre soundtrack. It's
surely a testament to the standalone
power of this man's output that despite
so much of his material having been
designed to accompany other people's
projects, it's still so much a part of
the modern classical canon in its own
right. This incredible album for Type
was composed as a soundtrack for Marc
Craste's award winning animated film
Varmints, and draws on the signature
elements of J≤hannsson's compositional
style: utterly jaw-dropping widescreen
orchestration, beatific choirs and the
most finely crafted electronic backdrops
imaginable - all colluding for some of
the most intoxicating and unashamedly
beautiful music you'll hear this year.
It doesn't take J≤hannsson long to
delineate the tone of what's to come,
establishing an introductory theme for
strings, backed with lyrical piano keys
and a soundscape of seabirds and
thunderclaps emerging from the mix in
the latter stages. After these
evocative, scene-setting beginnings
comes a burst of celestial melodrama
through 'City Building's choral
passages, giving an indication of the
lofty, unearthly extremes this composer
has a penchant for. Within a matter of
moments the more abstract and textural
leanings of 'The Flat' take us somewhere
entirely different, flooding the track
with phased, airy noise atmospheres and
weightless plumes of strings.
'Rainwater' continues to sew processed
electronics into the fabric of the
music, reminding you that this is after
all an artist who has shared a label
with the likes of Fennesz. The recurrent
rumbling of deeply ingrained background
static only reinforces how cinematic
this music is - there's a tangible sense
of place and (at the risk of sounding a
bit pompous) mise-en-scene, but even
beyond that, the album follows a kind of
undulating structure that's very much
in-keeping with the notion of a
beginning-middle-end narrative; you can
feel the music slipping into a sombre,
minor-key mode by the end of 'The Gift',
entering into the desolation of 'Dying
CIty', with its processed field
recordings and lone voices. 'Escape',
with its dark-ambient drones and broad
solo cello strokes only reinforces the
suggestion of peril, but by the album's
final leg glimmers of optimism creep
into the denouement, first imbuing
'Inside The Pods' with a magisterial,
reverberant grandeur and then reaching
outright jubilation over the course of
the end theme - a dose of euphoric
crescendo that could only have come from
the same part of the world as Sigur R≤s.
The music on this album has already been
awarded first prize for 'Best Original
Score' at the Rhode Island International
Film Festival, and for our money is the
finest thing he's done since his debut.
J≤hannsson's just on exceptional, moving
form here - miss out at your peril.
Artwork By [Graphic Design] - Rasmus
Koch Studio , Till Rickert
Concertmaster - Bohumil Kotmel
Conductor, Chorus Master - Miriam
Nemcova
Contractor [Orchestra] - James
Fitzpatrick
Engineer [Sound Design] - Adrian Rhodes
Orchestra - City Of Prague Philharmonic
Orchestra
Orchestrated By - Johann Johannsson ,
Nicklas Schmidt
Piano, Keyboards, Programmed By
[Electronic Processing] - Johann
Johannsson
Recorded By [Orchestra] - Jan Holzner
Soprano Vocals [Solo] - Michaela Srumova
Written-By, Arranged By, Producer, Mixed
By - Johann Johannsson
Standard black vinyl edition. Initial
copies were pressed on transparent
vinyl.
Tracks A6 & B3 exclusive to the vinyl
edition.
Music from the short film Varmints by
Marc Craste, produced by Studio AKA,
based on the book by Marc Craste and
Helen Ward.
Orchestra recorded at Barrandov Studios,
Smecky Soundstage, Prague. Additional
recordings in Copenhagen. Mixed in NTOV,
Copenhagen.
Thanks: Louise and Karolina, Marc
Craste, Sue Goffe and all at Studio AKA.
www.johannjohannsson.com