aaamusic | On 24, May 2011

Jóhann Jóhannsson
‘The Miners’ Hymns’
Formats: CD / CD / digital / LP
Release Date: 23rd May 2011
Cat. No.’s: CD13-13 / DA13-13 / LP13-13
Barcodes: CD 6 – 00116 – 13162 – 1; DIG 06 – 00116 – 13165 – 2; LP 6 – 00116 – 13161 – 4

Tracklisting:
1. They Being Dead yet Speaketh
2. An Injury To One Is The Concern Of All
3. Freedom From Want and Fear
4. There is No Safe Side but the Side of Truth
5. Industrial and Provident, We Unite to Assist Each Other
6. The Cause of Labour is the Hope of the World

Icelandic-born composer Jóhann Jóhannsson’s debut album for FatCat’s 130701 imprint, ‘The Miners’ Hymns’ is a brand new film score from a hugely exciting collaborative project based around the weighty subject matter of the disembling of North East England’s mining community. A fine addition to Jóhannsson’s acclaimed release history, the album moves from suitably dark and brooding minimalism to moments of rousing transcendence, showcasing the composer’s ability to combine both beautiful and chilling elements.

Originally presented as a live performance at Durham Cathedral over two nights in July 2010, ‘The Miners’ Hymns’ album is the result of a collaboration between Jóhann and highly regarded American experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison, whose stunning 2002 film ‘Decasia’ (composed from damaged film stock) was described by The Village Voice as “the most widely acclaimed American avant-garde film of the fin-de-siecle”. Says Jóhann of Morrison’s work: “I liked his aesthetic. His work reminded me of the kind of footage I use for my concerts, these abstract, blurry super-8 textures. His films deal with decay and memory, which are themes I work with a lot also, so there was a lot of common ground before we started.” Jóhann wrote the bulk of the music before Morrison began work on the film – Morrison edited the footage to the music before sending the rough edits back to Jóhannsson, starting a back and forth process.

The British Film Institute release the full DVD on the 20th June.

Accompanied by Jóhannsson’s score, the results are compelling. Morrison’s film culminates in the long Gala procession into the breathtaking Durham Cathedral, a focal point for the Gala, and revisited by Jóhann as the recording location for this score work. Performed and recorded live, the ensemble was led by Gudni Franzson, a Jóhannsson collaborator and leader of Caput – Iceland´s preeminent contemporary music ensemble. After his lauded piece for brass ensemble and electronics, “Virthulegu forsetar” (released on CD by Touch in 2004), ‘The Miners’ Hymns’ marks a return to brass instrumentation for a composer whose recent work has been based around strings, in tribute to the popularity and symbolic importance of the traditional colliery brass band in Britain’s mining communities.

Fittingly, a 16-piece brass ensemble is employed here (specially assembled and partly comprising members of the NASUWT Riverside Band, formed in 1877 as The Pelton Fell Colliery Band) combined with the huge Durham Cathedral organ (played by the acclaimed organist Robert Houssart), percussion, and Jóhann’s own subtle electronics – recorded separately in the cathedral prior to the performance so to use it’s hollow reverberations as an instrument in itself – adding an otherworldly brightness. The overall impression is haunting, austere and powerfully affecting: From ‘An Injury to One Is the Concern of All’’s gently descending chord sweeps, to the huge shift in dynamics and heart stopping, interweaving landscapes of ‘The Cause of Labour is the Hope of the World’, Jóhann demonstrates how a single body of instruments can be used to create stirring and powerfully evocative music of genuine beauty.

‘The Miners’ Hymns’ project was initially commissioned for the civic-sponsored ‘Brass: Durham International Festival’, which incorporated the Durham Miners’ Gala into a programme celebrating the culture of mining and the strong regional tradition of brass bands. Once the biggest trade union festival in Europe, attracting up to a quarter of a million people, the annual Gala continues despite the fact that coal is no longer mined in the county that is built on it. Created from BFI, BBC and Yorkshire Film archive footage and commissioned by UK Arts Council producers Forma, Morrison’s ‘The Miners Hymns’ film celebrates social, cultural, and political aspects of the extinct industry, and the strong regional tradition of colliery brass bands. Focusing on the Durham mines in the North East of the UK, the film is structured around a series of activities including touching on the hardship of pit work, the role of Trade Unions in organising and fighting for workers’ rights, and the pitched battles with police during the 1984 strike as Thatcher’s government sounded the death knell for the industry. Whilst almost entirely composed of black and white footage, two short colour sections are shot from a helicopter hovering over the sites of the former collieries (now become temples of modern leisure and consumerism), and the film cuts between footage from different eras – from grainy footage of primitive conditions from early last century, through processes of increased mechanisation and up to the highly emotive era of the miner’s strikes of the mid-1980s. Immaculately edited, the film serves as a “kind of requiem for a disappearing industry but also a celebration of the culture, life and struggle of coal miners,” describes Jóhann. The titles of the individual sections are slogans taken from the trade union banners that are an iconic part of the Miners’ Gala.
“Described as “intrepid musical enigma” by the BBC, Jóhann’s compositions have been moving listeners for almost a decade. His arresting ‘Englabörn’ album from 2002 was one of the very first and most influential releases in the broad-reaching post-classical / modern composition field and his place in that scene is now fully cemented and justly deserved. Jóhann Jóhannsson has since released several albums with the highly renowned 4AD, Touch and Type labels. His award winning film scores include Varmints (2010) and the Icelandic film Dís (2004).”
Already an established live performer, having filled some of Europe’s leading cultural venues, Jóhann will be performing at the Barbican’s Steve Reich festival on the 8th May, as well as several headline dates around Europe and North America, with more to be announced.