JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM, LAST AND FIRST MEN, SET FOR RELEASE ON FEBRUARY 28LAST AND FIRST MEN SET FOR WORLD PREMIERE AT BERLINALE 2020 ON FEBRUARY 25MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DRAWS FROM CLASSIC CULT SCI-FI NOVEL AND IMAGES OF MYSTERIOUS MONUMENTAL SCULPTURE TO CREATE ELEGIAC MEDITATION ON MEMORY AND LOSSOFFICIAL PRESS RELEASENEWS PROVIDED BY Universal Music Canada “A breath-taking requiem for the final human species in civilisation, majestically put together over seven years by a composer who is destined for sheer greatness.” - Manchester Evening News 14 FEBRUARY 2020 (TORONTO, ON) - Last and First Men is Jóhann Jóhannsson’s poetic swansong. The Icelandic composer was working on the score of his magnum opus at the time of his death in February 2018, distilling and intensifying the symphonic soundworld that he had premiered at Manchester International Festival (MIF) little more than six months earlier. Jóhannsson devised the multimedia work’s visual concept, travelled to the former Yugoslavia to shoot footage of isolated locations and futuristic war memorials, then set about marrying haunting images to music. The final version of the film, which tells the story of the extinction of humanity, was completed by Norwegian cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen. It is narrated by Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, and features performances by several of Jóhannsson’s regular musical collaborators, including members of Theatre of Voices, and the Academy Award-winning Hildur Guðnadóttir on vocals, cello and percussion. Last and First Men receives its world premiere on February 25 at the 2020 Berlinale and will be issued digitally worldwide by Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company, on February 28. The film will then be released on Blu-ray, packaged together with the original score recording on CD (27 March internationally, with an earlier release date of 28 February in Germany, Switzerland and Austria), and as part of a Limited Deluxe Vinyl Art-Edition, which also comprises three art prints (27 March internationally; 10 April in the US). “We wanted to film these sculptures in a formalistic manner to emphasise their strange asymmetrical beauty. We woke every morning at four o’clock to be ready for sunrise and stayed outside filming all day until there was no light. It was one of the happiest experiences in my life, and one of the most gruelling.” (Jóhann Jóhannsson, 1969-2018) Jóhannsson’s vision evolved into a multimedia artwork shot on high-definition 16mm black-and-white film and accompanied by music of mantra-like intensity. He worked on the project between creating the Oscar-nominated soundtracks for James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything and Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, before finally drawing together images and music in the summer of 2017 to form the grand movie he’d always dreamed of making. “I think Last and First Men will live on in many different incarnations. It’s a big ask for people to sit for 70 minutes and look at concrete and hear about the end of humanity, but hopefully we’ve taken all these elements and made something beautiful and poignant. Something like a requiem.” (Jóhann Jóhannsson in an interview with journalist and author Andrew Male) After the premiere of the original version at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Berlin-based composer and sound artist Yair Elazar Glotman assisted Jóhannsson with the work of transforming the score. “He said Last and First Men was a work in progress and that he was interested in scaling down the orchestra in order to create a more direct and intimate sound,” recalls Glotman. Following Jóhannsson’s death, he spent almost a year interpreting his friend’s wishes. “I could no longer consult with him, but since we’d collaborated on the project beforehand, I had a map, an idea of where to go.” That map led Glotman to work with musicians close to Jóhann Jóhannsson and also to incorporate the composer’s treasured harmonium into the work’s final version. “It’s been with his family for three generations and was about to be sent back to Iceland,” he notes. “So my first priority was to make sure we recorded on it before it returned home. That was incredibly emotional. It’s now an integral part of the sound of Last and First Men.”
Source Universal Music Canada
February 14, 2020 9:38am ET by Pressparty |