Over the weekend, the sad news came from Berlin that composer, Johann Johannsson, has died at the age of 48. Johannsson was one of the most fascinating of contemporary popular composers, bringing his rich hybrid of electronic, string and choral music to the concert hall, as well as to the cinema, in films such as The Theory of Everything, for which he won a Golden Globe, along with those of his regular collaborator, Denis Villeneuve, such as Arrival.
Reykjavik-born Johannsson’s concert work was inspired by a huge range of sources, from the collapse of the mining industry in the North of England to the user manual of a superannuated IBM mainframe beloved of his own father.
He regularly enlisted film projections to expand the possibilities of his own performances, creating expanded concert hall experiences that were profoundly moving and memorable.
Johannson spoke to Luke Clancy once upon a time on a visit to Dublin, and we’d like to remember that conversation here.
