Johann Johannsson - Fordlândia Released Today
03 November 08
"A work of astonishing beauty." Q (4/5)
"Jóhannsson's most ambitious and fully realised achievement to date." Rock Sound (8/10)
"An ambitiously themed, leftfield, modern classical album that not only impresses, but totally enthrals." Drowned in Sound (8/10)
Fordlândia is a fascinating, immersive and deeply rewarding web of ideas and melodies, sure to please fans and win him even more new listeners. It's the second installment in a proposed trilogy based on technology and iconic American brand names and where IBM 1401, A User's Manual (the first in the trilogy released in 2006) was a personal response to the first computer to arrive in Iceland and its inevitable obsolescence (inspired by his father's own work with mainframe computers in the 1960s), Fordlândia springs out of a far more diffuse set of influences. It brings together the soaring grandeur of its predecessor – some sections were recorded with the same orchestra in Prague – and the intimacy of Englabörn, moving between heady, melting cadences and crystalline motifs with gorgeous, dreamlike logic.
Jóhann has also recently composed scores for the award-winning animator Marc Craste (Varmints, 2008) and the American independent film Personal Effects
The full tracklisting for Fordlandia follows:
1. Fordlandia
2. Melodia (I)
3. Rocket Builder The (Io Pan)
4. Melodia (II)
5. FordlandiaAerial View
6. Melodia (III)
7. Chimaerica
8. Melodia (IV)
9. Great God Pan Is Dead
10. Melodia (Guidelines For A Propulsion Device Based On Heim's Quantum Theory)
11. How We Left Fordlandia
