Olafur Johann Olafsson

Norway meets Iceland in wildly inventive ambient-gothic improvisations recorded in an abandoned Reykjavik warehouse Jo Berger Myhre and Ólafur Björn Ólafsson have created a strikingly original sound-world that, while it may have its antecedents, doesn’t really remind you of anyone else.

Last And First Men, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s poetic swansong, receives its world film premiere on 25 February at Berlinale 2020. Deutsche Grammophon will release the original score digitally worldwide on 28 February followed by the release of the film on Blu-ray, packaged with the CD, and a Limited Deluxe Vinyl Art Edition in March. The Icelandic composer was working on the score of his magnum opus at the time of his death in February 2018, distilling and intensifying the symphonic soundworld that he had premiered at Manchester International Festival (MIF) six months earlier. Jóhann Jóhannsson devised the multimedia work’s visual concept, travelled to the former Yugoslavia to shoot footage of isolated locations and futuristic war memorials, then set about marrying haunting images to music.

Milan Records has released a soundtrack album for the Icelandic TV series Trapped. The album features selections of the show’s original music composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir (Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Joker, Mary Magdalene), Rutger Hoedemaekers and Johann Johannsson (Arrival, The Theory of Everything, Sicario). The soundtrack is now available to download overseas. Visit to British Amazon store check out audio samples. Trapped is created by Baltasar Kormakur (Everest, 101 Reykjavík) and stars Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Bjarne Henriksen, Ingvar E Sigurðsson, Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir, Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir and Björn Hlynur Haraldsson. The RKV Studios production follows a troubled cop as he investigates murders in his small Icelandic town. Season 1 of the series premiered back in 2016 on RUV in Iceland and on BBC in the UK and the second season aired earlier this year.