Releases
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Fordlândia LTD ED 2 LP in stores Dec 6
4AD will release their first vinyl pressing of Fordlândia by Jóhann Jóhannsson on December 6th 2019. Initially released in 2008, this edition is complete with previously unpublished album notes written by
the late and much-missed composer.
Released just as Jóhann’s star was rising in the world of modern composition, Fordlândia is a beautiful
meld of strings and electronics, with two themes running throughout; “This album is like a film with two
separate story lines that at first don’t seem to have a lot to do with each other, but actually they do,” said
Jóhann at the time.
The idea of failed utopias is the album’s main thread, with the title a reference to the Fordlândia rubber
plantation in Brazil that Henry Ford built with grand plans in the mid-1920s but abandoned after a mere
eight years at a huge personal cost and without a single tire for one of his cars having been produced.
The collision of mysticism and rocket science is the other theme explored – made apparent by song titles
such as ‘The Rocket Builder (Lo Pan!)’ and ‘Melodia (Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device Based on
Heim’s Quantum Theory)’ – a topic Jóhann was fascinated by at the time of writing this album, keenly
studying the leftfield works of John Whiteside Parsons and Burkhard Heim.
Previously only available on vinyl as a small run pressed by Jóhann himself on his NTOV label, this
new pressing comes spread across two 180g pieces of black vinyl and is housed in a beautiful gatefold
sleeve. This pressing has been mastered by Bo Kondren at Calyx and the artwork has been adapted
from his original design by Chris Bigg.
“The second installment in Jóhann Jóhannsson’s trilogy of albums about technology and iconic American
brand names, Fordlandia expands on IBM 1401, A User’s Manual by chronicling, among other things, the
failure of Henry Ford’s Brazilian rubber plant with the power of a 50-piece string orchestra. IBM, which
included recordings of its titular computer, could have been gimmicky or overly conceptual, but the results
were remarkably moving and personal. While Fordlandia is slightly more straightforward musically, its
concepts and emotional impact are much more involved and ambitious. Fittingly, ambition is one of the
album’s major themes, along with failure, mortality, immortality, and technology’s potential for creation and
destruction. Jóhannsson depicts these dualities with portraits of great heights and, mostly, deep losses.
Ford’s doomed project — which he envisioned as a utopia but ended in disaster, with rioting workers and
the development of synthetic rubber, ultimately costing him millions of dollars — provides the thematic
backbone for the album’s major pieces. “Fordlandia”‘s strings and subtle electric guitars are never less
than majestic, but move gradually and naturally from hope to bittersweet doubt over the course of 13
minutes, keeping the intimacy that Jóhannsson’s work has shown since Englaborn. That bittersweetness
wells into sorrow on “Fordlandia — Aerial View”; recorded in a Reykjavik church with no edits, its aching
strings and low-rumbling percussion sound equally devastated and beautiful.
Fordlandia also tells equally fascinating stories of creation and destruction that are less well known than
Ford’s: “The Rocket Builder (Lo Pan!)” takes its inspiration from self-taught chemist, rocket propulsion
researcher, and occultist Jack Parsons, building from strings to precise electronics that overtake the track
with a tense, slightly sinister beauty that deepens into dread thanks to doomy guitar chords. Its foil is
“Melodia (Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device Based on Heim’s Quantum Theory),” inspired by
German physicist Burkhard Heim, who, despite being blind, deaf, and having lost his hands in a World
War II accident, devised a theory for space travel faster than the speed of light. Named after a research
paper based on his work, the piece soars skyward on a looping pipe organ melody and streaming synths
and strings, offering some hope among the rest of Fordlandia’s gloom. “The Great God Pan is Dead” —
which alludes to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poems about the demigod who embodied creation and
destruction for her — crystallizes these dualities, as well as the album’s profound sense of loss, with
choral vocals and rain.” – AllMusic
Selections:
A1. Fordlandia (13.43)
A2. melodia (i) (1:56)
B1. The Rocket Builder (lo Pan!)
(6.25)
B2. melodia (ii) (1.49)
B3. Fordlandia (Aerial View) (4.33)
B4. melodia (iii) (3.12)
C1. Chimaerica (3.22)
C2. melodia (iv) (2.45)
C3. The Great God Pan Is Dead
(4.56)
C4. Melodia (Guidelines for a
Space Propulsion Device Based
on Heim’s Quantum Theory) (9.04)
D1. How We Left Fordlândia
(15.24)
