Johann Johannsson - Orphee (2016)

Prolific and critically acclaimed composer Jóhann Jóhannsson releases his DG debut album.

ORPHÉE is his highly anticipated new studio album the first in 6 years!

Jóhannssons genre-blending score represents all facets of his previous works from intimate string quartet pieces, to large string orchestra works, featuring electronics, drones, organ, piano, choir, as well as enigmatic shortwave broadcasts to create an evocative & immersive sound.

I started writing this album in 2009, using a number of simple contrapuntal themes. I began to reshape and transfigure these ideas, writing many different variations. These renderings slowly mutated over time in a process of deconstruction and re-assembly, to the extent that the original versions began to fade into the darker corners of my hard disk. Unlike many of my previous albums, this one didnt start out with a conceptual or narrative theme binding the music together. Rather, the music seemed to be waiting for its form, for its momentum. Jóhann Jóhannsson

ORPHÉE is a melancholic, yet optimistic musical journey inspired by the Orpheus myth Orpheus rising from the underworld, trying to escape darkness into the light.

Orphée was for me about moving to a new city, breaking up old relationships and beginning new ones, leaving behind an old life in Copenhagen and building a new one in Berlin. I think thats why I gravitated to Ovids version of the Orpheus myth, which tells of death, rebirth and an artist s search for truth. This album is an oblique reflection on personal change.