Tribute Jóhann Jóhannsson

Up until his premature departure in 2018, Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson was, along with Max Richter, one of the best things to happen to film music since decades. Born in Reykjavik in 1969, he started his musical career in the 80s, as a member of indie rock bands like Olympia, Unun and Ham, before founding Kitchen Motors, a think tank and laboratory celebrating dialog between all musical forms, from electro to classical, including punk and jazz. He released his first solo album in 2002. His melodies, mixing electro arrangements and catchy strings, bring forth bewitching and entrancing landscapes that seduced many filmmakers, such as Denis Villeneuve who will call upon him for all his films from Prisoners up to the splendid score for Arrival. As for the unforgettable leitmotiv from The Theory of Everything, it has enthralled many an ear. Always eager to evolve and experiment, in 2018 with Mandy, he delivers a more aggressive, noisy, haunted testament of sorts, reflective of the Panos Cosmatos film it accompanies. His last masterpiece outside of movies was titled Orpheus (2016), but Jóhann Jóhannsson himself doesn't seem to have returned from the underworld.