Johann Johannsson
Icelandic. Could well appeal to fans of Max Richter's music. Is dreamy (mostly).
First up - IBM 1401 - A User's Manual. A series of largely orchestral pieces with odd bit of electronics going on in the background, with one song. All based around recordings his father (a maintenance engineer on Iceland's first IBM mainframe) made by programming the beast and tuning a radio into the noise generated by the memory of the computer.
Go to to his Myspace site. The Suns Gone Dim is the last track (and only song) from the album. The rest of it is like the music in the video that you can play if you scroll downwards (with the young lady writhing around). You don't get the gibbering on the album. It's on 4AD.
The other solo album I've got recently was Virthulegu Forsetar, which is an eerie trumpet thingy. A bugger to explain, but if you go here (and scrolll down to the bottom) you'll hear nearly three minutes of what the whole album's like (more or less). It's not a great sample to be honest. Boomkat have better (if shorter) samples, though they say they're out of stock. I got mine through Amazon. There are (slightly) livelier moments but mostly what you get are variations on bleak brass sounds. It's lovely.
And finally. When not glooming it up, Johann is a member of Apparat Organ Quintet who, for want of a better description, are a slightly wibblier Icelandic version of Kraftwerk. Go to their inevitable Myspace site and turn the volume up. Especially on Cruise Control. The whole album's very good and mostly not so Kraftwerky.
Icelandic. Could well appeal to fans of Max Richter's music. Is dreamy (mostly).
First up - IBM 1401 - A User's Manual. A series of largely orchestral pieces with odd bit of electronics going on in the background, with one song. All based around recordings his father (a maintenance engineer on Iceland's first IBM mainframe) made by programming the beast and tuning a radio into the noise generated by the memory of the computer.
Go to to his Myspace site. The Suns Gone Dim is the last track (and only song) from the album. The rest of it is like the music in the video that you can play if you scroll downwards (with the young lady writhing around). You don't get the gibbering on the album. It's on 4AD.
The other solo album I've got recently was Virthulegu Forsetar, which is an eerie trumpet thingy. A bugger to explain, but if you go here (and scrolll down to the bottom) you'll hear nearly three minutes of what the whole album's like (more or less). It's not a great sample to be honest. Boomkat have better (if shorter) samples, though they say they're out of stock. I got mine through Amazon. There are (slightly) livelier moments but mostly what you get are variations on bleak brass sounds. It's lovely.
And finally. When not glooming it up, Johann is a member of Apparat Organ Quintet who, for want of a better description, are a slightly wibblier Icelandic version of Kraftwerk. Go to their inevitable Myspace site and turn the volume up. Especially on Cruise Control. The whole album's very good and mostly not so Kraftwerky.
