Artist : J≤hann J≤hannsson Album : Englab÷rn & Variations Year : 2018 Genre : Classical Quality : 219kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint Stereo Source : CD Playtime : 1h 34m Size : 156.7mb Label : Deutsche Grammophon Catalognr : 00289 479 9841 Tracklist: CD 1 01. Odi Et Amo 3:10 02. Englab÷rn 1:34 03. J≤i & Karen 3:27 04. ▐etta Gerist ┴ Bestu Bµjum 0:59 05. Sßlfrµ≡ingur 3:49 06. "╔g Sleppi ▐Θr Aldrei" 2:57 07. Sßlfrµ≡ingur Deyr 3:40 08. Ba≡ 3:07 09. "╔g Heyr≡i Allt ┴n ▐ess A≡ Hlusta" 2:05 10. Karen B²r Til Engil 3:45 11. Englab÷rn - Tilbrig≡i 1:24 12. "╔g ┴tti Grßa ╞sku" 3:41 13. Kr≤k≤dφll 2:45 14. "Ef ╔g Hef≡i Aldrei..." 3:42 15. àEins Og Venjulegt F≤lk 3:51 16. Odi Et Amo - Bis 4:03 CD 2 01. "╔g Heyr≡i Allt ┴n ▐ess A≡ Hlusta" (A Winged Victory For 6:08 The Sullen Rework) 02. Odi Et Amo (J≤hannson / Donadello Rework) 2:52 03. Englab÷rn (Vφkingur ╙lafsson Piano Version) 5:09 04. J≤i & Karen (Ryuichi Sakamoto Rework) 5:29 05. Holy Thursday ("╔g Heyr≡i Allt ┴n ▐ess A≡ Hlusta") (Theatre 3:39 Of Voices Version) 06. Englab÷rn (Viktor Orri ┴rnason Rework) 2:22 07. Odi Et Amo - Bis (Alex Somers Rework) 4:21 08. Sßlfrµ≡ingur Deyr (Hildur Gu≡nad≤ttir Rework) 3:49 09. Odi Et Amo - Bis (J≤hannson / Donadello Rework) 2:54 10. àEins Og Venjulegt F≤lk (Paul Corley Rework) 3:38 11. Odi Et Amo (Theatre Of Voices Version) 6:25 Releasenotes: Fresh perspectives unveiled on poignant reissue of the late J≤hann J≤hannssonÆs debut album, set for release by Deutsche Grammophon in remastered form with additional album of æreworkingsÆ. During the weeks before his untimely passing on February 9, award-winning Icelandic composer J≤hann J≤hannsson was closely involved in preparations for the reissue of his debut album, Englab÷rn. Originally released in 2002, the record had been especially remastered, and a second disc containing reworkings of a number of its tracks had also been assembled. Some were by J≤hannsson himself û including a piano version of the title track, performed by fellow Deutsche Grammophon artist Vφkingur ╙lafsson û while others involved included Ryuichi Sakamoto, A Winged Victory for the Sullen and Hildur Gu≡nad≤ttir. Following discussions with his family, the release of Englab÷rn & Variations will go ahead on March 23, 2018. The late J≤hann J≤hannsson was already a familiar face within the Reykjavik music scene when his compatriot Hßvar Sigurj≤nsson approached him to compose for Englab÷rn, his latest play. The musician had played in countless guitar bands since the mid-1980s, as well as collaborating with other like-minded souls, and he was also the mastermind behind Kitchen Motors, an art collective and record label with an electronic and experimental bent. So widespread were J≤hannssonÆs interests, in fact, that the same year as Englab÷rn he released the debut by his latest band, Apparat Organ Quartet. The two couldnÆt have been more different: while Apparat Organ Quartet traded in playful instrumental keyboard pop, performed on refurbished vintage instruments alongside a drummer, Englab÷rn sounded like little anyone had ever heard. A peaceful, graceful intermingling of style, form and content, it was sometimes agonisingly desolate, sometimes gloriously uplifting, but never less than astonishing. These days, of course, itÆs almost impossible to imagine a world without music like J≤hannssonÆs. Alongside composers like Max Richter û whose debut, Memoryhouse, had appeared only a few months earlier û he helped blur the lines between classical and electronic music, giving birth inadvertently to a genre now known somewhat disingenuously as ænewÆ or æneo-classicalÆ. Over the years that followed, he composed some of the greatest film scores of the contemporary age, and others since û including ╙lafur Arnalds and A Winged Victory For The Sullen û have joined him in bringing this new, strangely indefinable sound into the mainstream. Back then, however, this delicate mesh of digital and analogue, of traditional and radical, of old and new, was considered exceptional, in every sense of the word. Moreover, it displayed everything that would set J≤hannssonÆs work apart, even if it took time for the world to recognise how the simplicity of its beauty matched the purity of his premise. But catch up they eventually would. Englab÷rn û the album û isnÆt the original score to Sigurj≤nssonÆs play. Instead, that blossomed into a free-standing album, its sixteen sublime miniatures steeped in austere melodic elegance and profound melancholy. ôThe music took on a life of its own,ö J≤hannsson recalled during preparations for the reissue. ôIt wasnÆt intended to be my first album as a solo artist. Like a fine example of Taoist serendipity and ædoing without doingÆ, this material simply demanded to exist as a work in its own right. And, as someone who embraces chance and letting go, and who tries to listen to what the music I compose wants to be û rather than what I want it to be û I was happy to oblige and spend the time required to make it into its own independent work.ö At the time, though it received some positive international coverage, Englab÷rnÆs seamless blend of classical and electronic instruments û released by LondonÆs experimental Touch label û remained something of a hidden gem. Slowly, however, word seeped from his homeland, far out in the North Atlantic, to the world beyond. ôThere werenÆt many composers combining classical instruments with digital processing in this way then,ö J≤hannsson said, ôbut people were ready.ö That itÆs ended up being reissued sixteen years later by Deutsche Grammophon confirms how far the world has now come. In many ways, æOdi et AmoÆ, Englab÷rnÆs opening track, represents the albumÆs essence, and indeed contains the seeds of much of J≤hannssonÆs later work. It set to music a short poem by the Roman poet Catullus û known today as æCatullus 85Æ û which encapsulates the complex nature of human relationships, most notably the grain of hate contained within loveÆs pearl. This conflict û ôOdi et Amoö means ôI hate and I loveö û was reflected, too, in the way that J≤hannsson matched two forms of music-making that had previously stood largely in opposition to one another. Even within the play itself, its contemplative stillness stood in stark contrast to the chilling onstage cruelty. ôI finalised the music,ö J≤hannsson commented of the composition, ôduring that strange and what seemed, for a day or two at least, apocalyptic autumn of 2001. I wanted the music for the violent end scene to be a vocal rendition of a descending harmonic motif that ran like a thread throughout the play. IÆd read æCatullus 85Æ at university, and it popped into my mind, as ideas do. I was experimenting with a simple application that allowed you to program the computer to æsingÆ melodies and words using its speech synthesis capabilities. The result û which involved a lot of work to get the computer to enunciate something vaguely resembling Latin! û had an eerie and disorienting quality, and seemed beautiful, tainted, almost defiled, and uncanny at the same time. All these contrasts and seemingly incongruous juxtapositions are of great interest to me. I like to use uncomplicated ideas that have resonances or layers that reveal themselves by association with certain lyrics, concepts or other things. The instrumentation û string quartet and computer voice û objectively reflected the contradictions explored in the poem, while the whole seemed to resonate strongly with the playÆs themes.ö Revisiting Englab÷rn offered J≤hannsson the chance to survey fifteen years of artistic and personal development, and the Variations album, he believed, connected his current creative interests to the album that launched his career. The first to rework tracks were Dustin OÆHalloran and Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie û otherwise known as ambient music duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen û and J≤hannssonÆs close friend and long term collaborator, cellist and composer Hildur Gu≡nad≤ttir. The process gathered further momentum after J≤hannsson remixed æSolariÆ, a track from Ryuichi SakamotoÆs 2017 album, async. The Japanese composer responded in kind by reworking Englab÷rnÆs æJoi & KarenÆ, and further tracks were contributed by composer Alex Somers, composer and producer Paul Corley, and violinist, orchestrator and composer Viktor Orri ┴rnason. ôThe rest of Variations is really my own work,ö J≤hannsson continued, and these new visions range from a solo piano version of the title track, performed by fellow DG artist Vφkingur ╙lafsson, to an arrangement of æOdi et AmoÆ for unaccompanied choir, interpreted by Theatre of Voices and conducted by Paul Hillier. There are also two further, deceptively simple instrumental takes made by J≤hannsson in collaboration with producer and sound engineer Francesco Donadello. Each reworking, while able to exist independently of its progenitor, provides a distinct twist on the original, simultaneously underlining and enriching the majesty of the material that inspired it. It no doubt pleased J≤hannsson to see old and new lining up alongside one another, and in a sense that makes Englab÷rn & Variations as appropriate a release as one might imagine within these distressing circumstances. But thereÆs something especially poignant in how the album that started his solo career has ended up being the one that caps it. Despite the fact no one ever envisioned it thus, it represents a suitably serene resolution to the conflict that his music so often addressed û Odi et Amo, Alpha et Omega û as though the circle of life was now complete. Like Catullus before him, J≤hann J≤hannssonÆs work managed not only to confront lifeÆs most irreconcilable forces, but also to embody them. As he himself said not long before he left us, ôSimplicity is hard,ö and yet he made it seem so easy. That was never more so than on Englab÷rn. By the time J≤hann J≤hannsson left us so horribly prematurely, sixteen years after Englab÷rnÆs release, on February 9, 2018, at the age of only 48, heÆd already bequeathed the world some of its finest music in years. Since the early 2000s, heÆd written and recorded prolifically, leaving behind eight studio albums û one a collaboration with Hildur Gu≡nad≤ttir & Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe û as well as a wealth of film scores. For these he received countless prizes and nominations û too many, certainly, for a humble man like him to list û but among them were scores for Dennis VilleneuveÆs Sicario and James MarshÆs The Theory of Everything, both nominated for an Oscar« and a BAFTA. The latter also won him a 2015 Golden Globe, as well as picking up a Grammy nomination, and his score for Arrival, furthermore, earned him BAFTA, Golden Globe and Grammy nominations. Anyone, though, whoÆd listened to his debut album, Englab÷rn, back in 2002 would have contended that this was inevitable. The man always had a gift. The team at Deutsche Grammophon are in deep mourning over the loss of our friend, J≤hann J≤hannsson. In the three years of our close collaboration, a true friendship had grown. We are speechless and take comfort in the memory of J≤hannÆs warm, enigmatic personality, his intelligent dry sense of humour and his relentless uncompromising search for new sounds and concepts. J≤hannÆs sonic scapes are unique and the void left by his passing can never be filled. The power of his music will live on and continue to touch us. http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/fr/artist/johannsson