(2019) Echo Collective – Jóhann Jóhannsson: 12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann      


Review:
Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson was prolific, a fact made clear in the months since his tragic passing in 2018. Five scores completed just before his death have since been released, and there’s a reissue in the works for Jóhannsson’s ’90s synth-pop duo Dip, with Sugarcubes drummer Siggi Baldursson. And that’s before the second part of the massive Retrospective box set series arrives next year. 12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann accentuates Jóhannsson’s creative restlessness. Originally premiered three years ago in London, it’s based on the works of Berlin painter Thilo Heinzmann. In accordance with the composer’s wishes, these pieces were recorded by the Brussels-based Echo Collective. If you ever found yourself swayed by Jóhannsson’s first major work, 2001’s exquisite Englabörn, you’ll know that from the start, he exhibited a heightened sensibility to the timbre of a string quartet. Subsequent works bore that out, even when he deployed brass ensembles or a full orchestra. Surprisingly, 12 Conversations marks his first proper work for string quartet alone. Jóhannsson often eschewed such formalities in his compositions, weaving in piano, electronics, vocal samples, and rumbling drones to give his work grit, chasmic depth, and emotional range. His genius lay in part in his ability to invert expectations of classical instrumentation to give rise to new sonorities, as when he deployed 12 double basses for Sicario. How else to explain the immense foreboding and dread he conjures on “The Beast,” perhaps his defining movie theme? This means that 12 Conversations can sound like Jóhannsson at his purest, most deferential, and—in the scope of his body of work—perhaps slightly unfinished. “Manifest” stuns with its beautiful theme, moving from a somber opening to something more sweeping and teasing a gorgeous line from the cello that stays just this side of a drone. It’s Jóhannsson totally unadorned, and it feels all the more lovely because of it. “Shell” might resemble a Bach suite, but it moves achingly slowly, evocative because of its deliberateness. The stately “Lacrimosa” sounds like a subtle homage to the likes of Vivaldi. But the gestures of “Stuk” and “Zurich” feel oddly disconnected and unresolved, like thematic sketches awaiting delivery of a rough cut of a film before being fully fleshed out. Originally commissioned by British philanthropist and art collector Richard Thomas to convey the communal transfer of artistic ideas beyond borders, the set projects an underlying theme about the European Union. Or rather, a British patron connected with an Icelandic composer to convey the visual aesthetic of a German painter with help from a Belgian musical ensemble. At such a precarious time on the continent, it’s a noble pursuit. Only, many moments on 12 Conversations feel more like an ambient backdrop than a focal point. A piece like “Danse” is the kind of classical music you put on when you want it to be totally unobtrusive. But when the high frequencies of “Form” strafe across the stereo field on the latter half of the album, it startles you to attention. In that moment, one pines for Jóhannsson himself—for his willingness to sully and scuff up the most pristine and stuffy of Western musical traditions in a true expression of the collective spirit of the 21st century. — By Andy Beta @ pitchfork


   


Track List:
01 - Low
02 - Stuk
03 - Shell
04 - Zurich
05 - Harm
06 - Lacrimosa
07 - Pol
08 - Form
09 - Arc
10 - Danse


Media Report:
Genre: classical
Country: Brussels, Belgium
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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