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Fordlândia was a failed venture of automobile magnate Henry Ford, a vast spread of land in the Brazilian Amazon that he purchased in the 1920s, his aim being the harvesting of rubber for tyres. A combination of technical misjudgement and poor treatment of his workers led to its eventual sale at a loss in 1945. Having laid out such an intriguing scenario, it must be said that the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's new concept album doesn't particularly evoke images of this unusual place and time. If it's steamy, then it's due to hot springs spurting in cold Northern atmospheres, rather than the humid sweating of South American rubber trees. Essentially, this lack of audio imagery isn't so important, as Fordlândia possesses its own distinct charms as a suite-like sequence of pieces.
Jóhannsson is again recording in Prague, mostly with a 60-piece orchestra. The strings are hardly audible at the beginning of the disc's 14 minute title opener, making their slow and stately progress towards an eventually fully-risen volume that might startle the listener. It makes a choral swell, but with strings rather than voices. Then, it recedes into the distance. There's a character that's reminiscent of Arvo Pärt's gently sawing developments, or more precisely, the steady processes of The Sinking Of The Titanic, when composer Gavin Bryars was in his most contemplative state.
It's sometimes hard to discern individual instruments, as Jóhannsson is concerned with the common compositional purpose. The sound of what might be either guitar, organ or electronic tweaking tends to merge into a single voice, gradually gaining in grandeur. Further comparisons could be made with Popol Vuh, or with the landscaping experiments of Fripp & Eno.
The four short Melodia pieces allow for a smaller chamber sound, with bass clarinet, harp or chimes establishing a quicker pulse, but still set against a brooding string backwash. Piano and churchy organ enter at certain points, subtly tipping the sonic emphasis, and The Great Pan Is Dead actually features a vocal chorus. The strongest release arrives at the climax of Melodia (the main nine minute piece with this title), with its low bass figure, faint percussion and billowing strings. The closing 15 minute How We Left Fordlândia has a theme that's suitably conclusive, entering Michael Nyman territory for the first time. This album might be a Fordlândia-style failure in terms of realising its concept, but its musical stasis provides a most extraordinarily tranquil sense of pleasure, supremely calming without being in any way bland. --Martin Longley
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnificent,
By Careful Reader (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fordlandia (Audio CD)
This is the second in Johann's planned trilogy based on technology and picks up where the truly stunning IBM 1401, A User's Manual (released in 2006) left off. A modern classical masterpiece - I find it inconceivable that anyone would give this less than five stars! Sweeping strings, delightful electronic bursts, soaring harmonies that can't but help yank one's emotions all over the place. Anyone lucky enough to see Joahnn's live gig at the Union Chapel in the summer 2008 will know what a building-shaking, emotion-shattering talent this guy is.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Eccletic that really grows on you,
This review is from: Fordlandia (Audio CD)
When I first listened to this album I thought, oh this is good, this is very good. But on listening to it again and again, it reveals layer after layer of meaning and beauty. You can sit and listen to it all by itself or use it in the background to help you into a creative zone. Brilliant.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Utopia Reimagined,
By
This review is from: Fordlandia (Audio CD)
Johann Johannsson is not afraid of harmony.
With 'Fordlandia' we could believe concinnity to be his raison d'etre given its glowing prominence in this truly beautiful work. It's high concept stuff (ie Henry Ford's unrealised dream of creating a little piece of hometown USA in the Amazonian jungle to produce rubber in the 1920s!) but never anything less than accessible and memorable. The project follows a programmatic (but non-literal) course subdivided by a series of interludes described as 'melodia' by the composer. Their relationship to the main narrative is ambiguous but thematically coherent. Traditional orchestral instrumentation and electronic elements are subtely and unobtrusively integrated into the dense fabric of the compositional tapestry. Opening track 'Fordlandia' gives up its magic slowly in gently rising waves of rich string orchestration. The relatively simple thematic material holds our attention in an almost hypnotic way. It is as though we are lifted up above the subject and borne through the clouds to a point where we can attain the clearest view of the whole. Music of true vision. The string quartet on 'Fordlandia - Ariel View', with its haunting, ethereal melody, gives us a more intimate experience of what flying might be like if only we had wings. The pipe organ deployed on the brief but elegaic 'Chimaerica' is gradually undermined by jarring electrical interference. A sense of an ancient world coming under attack from the present. The use of the choir in 'The Great God Pan Is Dead' is a beautifully realised textural idea. 'Melodia (Guidelines For A Space Propulsion Device Based On Heim's Quantum Theory)' makes use of half-heard internal rhythms which shift in and out of the blissfully sustained orchestral ostinato. The piece builds gradually until it reaches a marvelously uplifting coda. The concluding segment 'How We Left Fordlandia' is full of melancholy and longing. An achingly sad depiction of the loss of one man's dream vividly reimagined by another. With 'Fordlandia' Mr Johannsson has created a work of sublime and epic invention. Essential.
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