Beggars Group Canada

  • Home
  • Releases
  • Videos
  • Tour Dates
  • Release Schedule
  • Links
  • Contact
Beggars Canada RSS Feed

Latest From Twitter

Tweets by @BeggarsCanada

Tour Dates

  • 6 April 2023
    Overmono
    Toronto - Velvet Underground
  • 6 April 2023
    Yaeji
    Vancouver Commodore Ballroom (SOLD OUT)
  • 7 April 2023
    Overmono
    Montreal - SAT
  • 7 April 2023
    Algiers
    Montreal Casa Del Popolo
  • 8 April 2023
    Algiers
    Toronto The Garrison
  • 20 April 2023
    Sleaford Mods
    Vancouver Commodore Ballroom
  • 13 May 2023
    Yaeji
    Toronto Danforth Music Hall (LOW TIX)
  • 16 May 2023
    Yaeji
    Montreal - Corona Theatre (SOLD OUT)
  • 5 June 2023
    The National
    Vancouver - Deer Lake Park (Festival Lawn)
  • 21 June 2023
    Bartees Strange
    Sled Island 2023 - Royal Canadian Legion
  • 24 June 2023
    Helado Negro
    Sled Island 2023 - Royal Canadian Legoin
  • 24 June 2023
    Water From Your Eyes
    Sled Island 2023 - The Palomino
  • 4 July 2023
    Future Islands
    Budweiser Stage Toronto (Opening For Weezer)
  • 14 July 2023
    The Smile
    Parc de la Francophonie (FEQ )
  • 15 July 2023
    The Smile
    Laval, Place Bell
  • 16 July 2023
    The Smile
    Ottawa RBC Bluesfest
  • 3 August 2023
    Big Thief
    Vancouver Orpheum Theatre (SOLD OUT)
  • 5 August 2023
    The National
    Osheaga
  • 20 August 2023
    The National
    Budweiser Stage Toronto With Special Guests Patti Smith & U.S. Girls
  • 2 September 2023
    Interpol (Special Guests of The Smashing Pumpkins)
    Toronto Budweiser Stage
  • 3 September 2023
    Interpol (Special Guests of The Smashing Pumpkins)
    Ottawa Canadian Tire Center Ottawa
  • 28 September 2023
    Anjimile
    L'entrepot 77 (Pop Montreal)
  • 30 September 2023
    Water From Your Eyes
    l'escogriffe Bar Spectacle (Pop Montreal)

Releases

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Fordlândia LTD ED 2 LP in stores Dec 6

6 December 2019

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 Initially released in 2008, this edition is complete with previously unpublished album notes written by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)

Latest Releases

  • STEPHEN MALKMUS - TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES LP / CD IN STORES MARCH 6

    Find out more
  • KING KRULE - MAN ALIVE! RED VINYL LP/LP/CD IN STORES FEB 21

    Find out more
  • Gil Scott-Heron - We're New Again - A reimagining by Makaya McCraven LP / CD in stores Feb 7

    Find out more
  • The Pale Saints - The Comforts Of Madness Ltd Ed Clear Vinyl 2 LP / Standard LP / 2 CD IN STORES JAN 17

    Find out more
  • ALGIERS - THERE IS NO YEAR INDI EXCL LP / LP + 7" / CD IN STORES JAN 17

    Find out more
  • PINEGROVE - MARIGOLD INDIE EXCL LP / LP / CD IN STORES JAN 17

    Find out more
  • b4 greatest hits vol. 1 - Limited Edition LP IN STORES DEC 6

    Find out more
  • Jóhann Jóhannsson - Fordlândia LTD ED 2 LP in stores Dec 6

    Find out more
Retail Portal / XL / 4ad / Rough Trade / Matador / Beggars Archive