Unlimited Streaming
Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps
Start my trial period and start listening to this albumEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
SubscribeEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
Digital Download
Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
In the six years between And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees and Orphée, Jóhann Jóhannsson became a celebrated film composer, earning back-to-back Oscar nominations for his life-affirming score for The Theory of Everything and his ominous, rough-edged music for Sicario. During this time, Jóhannsson continued to work on personal projects including this, his Deustche Grammophon debut. In its own way, Orphée is also a little like a soundtrack: the composer drew inspiration from the story of Orpheus' ill-fated attempt to rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld, building on Ovid and Jean Cocteau's versions of the tale in his meditations on death, rebirth, and creativity. The Orpheus myth reflected Jóhannsson's life while he worked on the album: his move from Copenhagen to Berlin marked the closing of one chapter in his life and the start of a new one.
Like And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees, Orphée is both more intimate than some of his larger works, and immediately recognizable as Jóhannsson's. On "Flight from the City," a gentle but insistent piano motif rises and falls like breath, while strings deepen its sweet ache; layers of counterpoint inspire bittersweet wonder on "The Drowned World"; "Orphic Hymn" showcases the composer's flair for choral pieces, with Paul Hillier's Theatre of Voices performing lines from Ovid's text in Renaissance style; and "Fragment II" offers a brief burst of his grander scale with its ever-widening sea of drones and strings. This piece features Orphée's main motif, an ascending harmonic pattern that also appears on the ghostly "A Song for Europa," which introduces the staticky, numbers station-like recordings that flicker through the album, adding another layer of distance and mystery.
Orphée's studies in change give equal time time to mourning and hope, whether on the spine-tingling "A Pile of Dust" or the way "A Sparrow Alighted Upon Our Shoulder" and "By the Roes, and by the Hinds of the Field" dance between joy and sorrow. Similarly, Jóhannsson makes the album's chiaroscuro qualities explicit on "De Luce et Umbra," where a shadowy, almost subliminal pulse adds tension to the skyward strings, and on the Emily Dickinson-inspired diptych "Good Morning, Midnight" and "Good Night, Day," where subtle transitions evoke standing between ends and beginnings. On Orphée, Jóhannsson expresses the need to let some things and people go to let new ones in with remarkable nuance, as well as the affecting beauty fans have come to know and love.
© Heather Phares /TiVo
You are currently listening to samples.
Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.
Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.
From kr133,33/month
Flight From The City (Johann Johannsson)
Ben Russell, Viola, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Geoff Foster, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Clarice Jensen, Cello, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Francesco Donadello, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Yuki Numata Resnick, Violin, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Tarn Travers, Violin, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
A Song For Europa (Johann Johannsson)
Geoff Foster, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Programming, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Francesco Donadello, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Anthony Weeden, Conductor, MainArtist - Air Lyndhurst String Orchestra, Orchestra, MainArtist
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
The Drowned World (Johann Johannsson)
Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Organ, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, StudioPersonnel - Mette Due, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
A Deal With Chaos (Johann Johannsson)
Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Programming, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Hildur Guðnadóttir, Cello, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Ivar Ragnarsson, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
A Pile Of Dust (Johann Johannsson)
Geoff Foster, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Programming, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Anthony Weeden, Conductor, MainArtist - Air Lyndhurst String Orchestra, Orchestra, MainArtist
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
A Sparrow Alighted Upon Our Shoulder (Johann Johannsson)
Geoff Foster, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Programming, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Anthony Weeden, Conductor, MainArtist - Air Lyndhurst String Orchestra, Orchestra, MainArtist
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
Fragment I (Johann Johannsson)
Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Organ, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Mette Due, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
By The Roes, And By The Hinds Of The Field (Johann Johannsson)
Geoff Foster, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Francesco Donadello, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Anthony Weeden, Conductor, MainArtist - Air Lyndhurst String Orchestra, Orchestra, MainArtist
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
The Radiant City (Johann Johannsson)
Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Ivar Ragnarsson, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - The Dirac Quartet, String Quartet, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
Fragment II (Johann Johannsson)
Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Recording Engineer, Programming, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
The Burning Mountain (Johann Johannsson)
Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Programming, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Mette Due, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - The Dirac Quartet, String Quartet, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
De Luce et Umbra (Johann Johannsson)
Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Organ, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Mette Due, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Ivar Ragnarsson, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - The Dirac Quartet, String Quartet, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
Good Morning, Midnight (Johann Johannsson)
Geoff Foster, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Programming, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Anthony Weeden, Conductor, MainArtist - Air Lyndhurst String Orchestra, Orchestra, MainArtist
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
Good Night, Day (Johann Johannsson)
Geoff Foster, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer, Programming, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Anthony Weeden, Conductor, MainArtist - Hildur Guðnadóttir, Cello, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Air Lyndhurst String Orchestra, Orchestra, MainArtist
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
Orphic Hymn (Johann Johannsson)
Paul Hillier, Conductor, Chorus Conductor - Chris Watson, Tenor, AssociatedPerformer - Theatre of Voices, Choir, MainArtist - Preben Iwan, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Ovid, Author - Else Torp, Soprano, AssociatedPerformer - Johann Johannsson, Composer, Producer - Jakob Bloch Jespersen, Bass-Baritone, AssociatedPerformer - Signe Asmussen, Mezzo-Soprano, AssociatedPerformer - Paul Bentley-Angell, Tenor, AssociatedPerformer - Jakob Soelberg Hammershøj, Bass-Baritone, AssociatedPerformer - Ellen Marie Brink Christensen, Mezzo-Soprano, AssociatedPerformer - Kristin Mulders, Mezzo-Soprano, AssociatedPerformer - Elenor Wiman, Mezzo-Soprano, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
Album review
In the six years between And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees and Orphée, Jóhann Jóhannsson became a celebrated film composer, earning back-to-back Oscar nominations for his life-affirming score for The Theory of Everything and his ominous, rough-edged music for Sicario. During this time, Jóhannsson continued to work on personal projects including this, his Deustche Grammophon debut. In its own way, Orphée is also a little like a soundtrack: the composer drew inspiration from the story of Orpheus' ill-fated attempt to rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld, building on Ovid and Jean Cocteau's versions of the tale in his meditations on death, rebirth, and creativity. The Orpheus myth reflected Jóhannsson's life while he worked on the album: his move from Copenhagen to Berlin marked the closing of one chapter in his life and the start of a new one.
Like And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees, Orphée is both more intimate than some of his larger works, and immediately recognizable as Jóhannsson's. On "Flight from the City," a gentle but insistent piano motif rises and falls like breath, while strings deepen its sweet ache; layers of counterpoint inspire bittersweet wonder on "The Drowned World"; "Orphic Hymn" showcases the composer's flair for choral pieces, with Paul Hillier's Theatre of Voices performing lines from Ovid's text in Renaissance style; and "Fragment II" offers a brief burst of his grander scale with its ever-widening sea of drones and strings. This piece features Orphée's main motif, an ascending harmonic pattern that also appears on the ghostly "A Song for Europa," which introduces the staticky, numbers station-like recordings that flicker through the album, adding another layer of distance and mystery.
Orphée's studies in change give equal time time to mourning and hope, whether on the spine-tingling "A Pile of Dust" or the way "A Sparrow Alighted Upon Our Shoulder" and "By the Roes, and by the Hinds of the Field" dance between joy and sorrow. Similarly, Jóhannsson makes the album's chiaroscuro qualities explicit on "De Luce et Umbra," where a shadowy, almost subliminal pulse adds tension to the skyward strings, and on the Emily Dickinson-inspired diptych "Good Morning, Midnight" and "Good Night, Day," where subtle transitions evoke standing between ends and beginnings. On Orphée, Jóhannsson expresses the need to let some things and people go to let new ones in with remarkable nuance, as well as the affecting beauty fans have come to know and love.
© Heather Phares /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 15 track(s)
- Total length: 00:46:21
- 1 Digital booklet
- Main artists: Johann Johannsson
- Composer: Johann Johannsson
- Label: Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
- Genre: Classical
© 2016 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin, under exclusive license to Universal Music Classics, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc. ℗ 2016 Jóhann Jóhannsson
Improve album informationWhy buy on Qobuz...
-
Stream or download your music
Buy an album or an individual track. Or listen to our entire catalogue with our high-quality unlimited streaming subscriptions.
-
Zero DRM
The downloaded files belong to you, without any usage limit. You can download them as many times as you like.
-
Choose the format best suited for you
Download your purchases in a wide variety of formats (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF...) depending on your needs.
-
Listen to your purchases on our apps
Download the Qobuz apps for smartphones, tablets and computers, and listen to your purchases wherever you go.