November 10, 2006 | Posted by mark at 3:34 PM

Melancholic Sine Wave Tone

PostJohann Johannson - the sun's gone dim and the sky's turned black.

Every once in a while I come across a song or album that I know is just perfect for my dad. As we both get older, it gets harder to pinpoint exactly what he'll be into, and he constantly throws curve balls at me. But, I think that Johann Johannson's IBM 1401, a User's Manual fits all the criteria:

1. It's from Iceland
2. It's about the IBM 1401 Data Processing System. Johann's father (Johann Gunnarsson) was the chief maintenance engineer on the machine in Iceland.
3. When the machine was decommissioned 30 years ago, Gunnarsson recorded the sounds of it in operation. Those sounds provide the backdrop for Johann's music.
4. The string section is actually the Prague Philharmonic
5. The liner notes are written on old IBM punch cards
6. It's some of the most beautiful neo-classical music I've yet to hear.

So, dad, if you're reading, I think you'll enjoy this one.

Everyone else, you'll like it too. I've listened to this whole record about 10 times in the last week. It's exactly what I needed. You can buy it from our friends at 4ad. You can also get it from eMusic. So highly recommended.

Comments

I love this album i wish i could get my hands on more stuff like this.

Posted by: Hjalti at November 10, 2006 4:17 PM

If you like this one, check out Max Richter's albums on Fat Cat, the Goldmund record on Type Recordings from last year, and the upcoming Radical Fashion on Hefty (should be out in January). I'm super into neo-classical right now, if you hadn't guessed.

Posted by: robot mark at November 10, 2006 4:24 PM

and don't miss out on the s/t Kopernik album on Eastern Developments from a few years back....fantastic

oh, and the last two albums by Johann on Touch are great too...i still think his debut album Englaborn may be my favorite...still getting into this one though....

Posted by: adam at November 10, 2006 6:41 PM

It is a good album, listened to it quite often the first week I had it as well, but there was one thing that annoyed me about it, and that was the amount of virtual silence there is. Its not completely silent if you're willing to turn your record player up 50dB (slight exaggeration), but when you've got it at a peaceful level (which the album needs) you get huge breaks and I just find that really frustrating, but maybe I'm the only one...

Posted by: Andrew at November 10, 2006 9:10 PM

Well, the silence is definitely part of his musical lexicon...and if it bothers you on this album, it'll drive you crazy on his last, Virðulegu Forsetar. He's not the first to do that though..he comes from a long line of composers who use silence in the same way they use other sounds...John Cage (obviously), Morton Feldman, and I want to say there's a 24 hour Charles Ives piece that's very up and down in the same way.

Posted by: adam at November 12, 2006 1:02 PM

Thanks for that!. I already got Max Richter and Goldmund, i'll check out the other stuff you've mentioned.

Posted by: Hjalti at November 16, 2006 10:45 AM
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