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Johan Johannsson
Fordlandia
Review By Chris Drabick
A composer like Johan Johannsson could really only come from Iceland. The Land of Fire and Ice is caught between worlds; it’s not quite Europe and too far from the Americas. The land itself is young, serving as a reminder of the thin line between safe and secure lands and living on an active volcano. Johannsson is also caught between worlds; he’s not quite traditional classical composer, but not exactly post-rock. He’s been an active musician for many years, but is young in his career as a solo artist (beginning with the well-received Englabörn in 2002). Here, Johannsson continues in his proposed trilogy about the role of technology in modern life, preceded by 2006’s stunning IBM 1401- A User’s Manual. Taking as his inspiration Henry Ford’s failed attempt at building an Americanized rubber plantation in Brazil, Johannsson again reveals his singular vision of the intersection of modern and classical music.
As has been the case with all of Johannsson’s previous outings, Fordlandia is difficult to categorize. It’s nearly entirely instrumental (a female chorus emboldens the middle section of “The Great God Pan is Dead”), employing an array of stringed instruments that occasionally meet with out-of-time modern percussion and the stray pump organ of “Chimaerica.” Perhaps the easiest/laziest descriptive terminology could be to think of the bulk of Johannsson’s work as film soundtracks lacking a film, but the dismissive nature of that sort of classification misses the emotional impact of Fordlandia. Maestro Johannsson evokes the culture clash and class struggle of Ford’s folly, deftly navigating the space between worlds that must have typified the experiences of those that lived in Fordlandia. Only a musician like Johannsson could identify.
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