Icelandic composer’s computer inspired masterpiece
Classical composers Henryk Gorecki and Arvo Part are frequently namechecked by rock’s highbrow advocates. Rekjavik’s Johannsson, however, successfully fuses the former’s gravitas with the latter’s minimalism, making his third solo release perfect for 4AD’s revitalised artiness. While the City Of Prague Philarmonic Orchestra’s strings swell at a creeping pace, electronic noises – coaxed by Johannson’s father in the early ‘70s out of the IBM 1401 computer on which he worked as an engineer – and spoken word samples from an accompanying instructional tape provide haunting accompaniment. The closing section drifts towards saccharine Craig Armstrong territory, but, while dramatically different to Kraftwerk’s Autobahn, this is an equally unforgettable elegy to a machine.
