#3696: With Jóhann Jóhannsson

The Icelandic-born, Berlin-based composer Jóhann Jóhannsson joins John Schaefer in the studio for this New Sounds show. Hear portions of his Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated score to the film about author and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking - The Theory of Everything, as well as his music from his very first record, Englabörn, his score to Bill Morrison’s silent film, The Miners’ Hymns, and music from his album, "IBM 1401: A User’s Manual."

Jóhannsson’s music often mixes acoustic instruments with toys and/or electronics and with processed or treated sounds. In his score for Bill Morrison’s The Miners’ Hymns, a brass-heavy elegy to the coal mining culture in Northeast England, Jóhannsson uses brass elements which hearken back to the colliery bands. Then, there’s his work “IBM 1401: A User’s Manual” based on early 1970’s recordings of Iceland’s first mainframe by his father, who maintained the computer. In his spare time, his father programmed music into the memory of said mainframe, which then emitted electromagnetic waves that could be picked up by an AM radio. We’ll hear music from "IBM 1401," as well as major cues from Jóhannsson’s music for The Theory of Everything, and more.

PROGRAM #3696– with Johann Johannsson (First aired on 02/13/2015)