JOHANN JOHANNSSON Vinyl & CDs

Review: The late Johann Johannsson, whose tragic death in 2018 shocked the music and film worlds at large, hears a new posthumous album released under Deutsche Grammophon here. Performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra on this recording, the suite first sprang inspirationally from field recordings the artist made at Iceland's Ellidaar power plant - from here, it brings together myriad inspirations, from the oncoming tide of environmental crisis in Iceland, to the autobiographic writing of historian Henry Adams (a famous critic of the Second Industrial Revolution, who distilled the encroaching tide of global industry into a singular neologism, "dynamo"). Though the new work is paired with older scores for the films Sicario and The Theory Of Everything, the whole album is a fresh take on Johannsson's best work, breathing new sonic vigour into the sociopolitical critique that bloomed towards the end of his life.