Experimental Work of the Month - Vote Here

"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

http://www.johannjohannsson.com/

Delivering a second long-form release for 4AD, Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson continues with a second part of his proposed trilogy of albums themed around iconic American brands. After IBM 1401 - A User's Manual, Johannsson turns his attentions to Fordlandia, named after the expanse of land purchased by Henry Ford in the Brazillian rainforest - a failed settlement designed as a means for acquiring rubber in the 1920s. As it turns out, this is only one amongst a number of overlapping themes drawn from various obscure corners of modern history, all knitted together like something from Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle. The album is divided into a number of different threads, with themes recurring throughout - much as has been the case in Johannsson's previous works. Here, between the grandeur and cinematic majesty of the Fordlandia-themed compositions you'll find the 'Melodia' series, taking on a more intimate, piano-driven and melancholy temperament. It's all beautifully produced, extracting the very strict, classical style of Johannsson's music from what might otherwise reach ECM-like levels of discipline. A good example of this is 'Chimaerica' which on the surface sounds like a pastiche of a Bach organ piece, dominated by dour ecclesiastical melodies until some digital intervention draws the sound design into the 21st century. In a similar fashion, 'The Great God Pan Is Dead' is shaped by beautiful choral arrangements and some extreme dynamic shifts - all very much within the realms of the conventional classical canon (Arvo Part being a clear influence) - when immediately after, 'Melodia (Guidelines For A Space Propulsion Device)' crunches into life with a very contemporary, backbeat-driven electronic sound. Fordlandia is tremendously beautiful and, of course, comes highly recommended.
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=142162

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdRUMqds5r8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knAyrqqApQk

*LAST 15 COPIES - BACK IN STOCK* With the astounding quality of releases that have appeared on Type recently, it would be easy to become blasé over their output. Deaf Center shake you from any such complacency - delivering here a record that will be extremely hard to beat as album of the year for 2005. Apparently inspired by "old silent 8mm film reels and historical architecture", the Norwegian duo of Erik Skodvin and Otto Totland have produced a lambent debut that recalls the likes of William Basinski (particularly the 'Disintegration Loops' indebted 'Lobby'), Marsen Jules and Harold Budd. Over layers of warmly battered aural sediment, Deaf Center build the kind of vista-expanding, piano tinged music that has you thinking you're in your very own film. Manifesting itself in the stravaig and epic iciness of 'Thread', or the etiolated Nyman piano of 'White Lake', Deaf Center have a seemingly bottomless supply of aural dignity and pathos on which to draw. Other highlights include the tense strings and snatched choirs of 'Stone Beacon', the thrumming piano of 'Loft' and the soaring orchestral pomp of 'Thunder Night'. Just incredible music
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=18733