“A Song for Europa’ is one of the key tracks from Jóhann Jóhannsson’s release ‘Orphée’ on Deutsche Grammophon.
“Orphée” shows the full range of the Icelandic composer’s remarkable invention and uncanny feeling for atmosphere. The music of the entire album is tied together structurally by recurring harmonic and melodic elements, yet each track sounds fresh, evocative and unique.
Typically for Johann, the work is a beautifully atmospheric composition, one that immerses the listener into the strange recordings of the ‘Numbers Stations’: a category of shortwave radio station broadcasts characterized by readings of number lists, letters and coded messages from a forgotten era.
An air of espionage and shadowy cold war communication pervades the work, but the exact clarification remains as unknown as the station owners, and though most of these broadcasts went silent after the fall of the Berlin Wall, some can still be heard beaming their mysterious signals into the ether. It is to these lost, lonely voices that Jóhann has turned, capturing the enigmatic transmission of encoded information to persons elsewhere, and reflecting them back within a new context.
In response, AKA director Gergely Wootsch has created a considered and thoughtful animated film, which crosses literal boundaries and thresholds as it drifts along a desolate cold war landscape, following the haunting voice as it searches for a listener. (Youtube Description)
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