Jóhann Jóhannsson, the Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning composer who has created some of the most memorable recent scores, has died. He was 48.
Born and raised in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík, he studied languages and literature at university, but got his musical start as a guitarist in local indie rock bands. Looking to expand the influence of different musical genres, he co-founded Kitchen Motors in 1999, a think tank, art organisation and music label.
Out of those collaborations, he formed his own musical style, and began releasing solo albums that combined string instrumentals with digital filters. And he soon grabbed the attention of TV and filmmakers, working on projects such as small screen comedy Dis and In The Arms Of My Enemy.
His real breakout in film was his collaborations with Denis Villeneuve, for whom he wrote the scores that brought such effective soundscapes to Prisoners, Sicario and Arrival. He was nominated for Oscars for Sicario and for The Theory Of Everything, winning a Golden Globe for the latter.
More recently, he was hired to work on the music for Darren Aronofsky's mother! but after finishing the score, both he and the director agreed that the movie worked better without it. "mother! is a film where half measures have no place and after Darren and I had explored many different approaches, my instinct was to eliminate the score entirely," he explained in the film's press notes. "Erasure is a big part of the creative process and in this case, we knew we had to take this approach to its logical extreme."
Jóhannsson's work can be heard on UK screens in The Mercy, which has just opened here, and he has provided music for upcoming tiles Mandy and Mary Magdalene.
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