''IBM 1401, A User's Manual'' is the fourth full-length

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by Icelandic musician

Jóhann Jóhannsson Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson (; 19 September 1969 – 9 February 2018) was an Icelandic composer who wrote music for a wide array of media including theatre, dance, television, and film. His work is stylised by its blending of traditional orchest ...

, released by 4AD on October 30, 2006. 4AD released the album on vinyl for the first time on December 8, 2017. The reissue was a double LP pressing on clear-coloured vinyl and included two previously unreleased live bonus tracks.

Critical reception

Upon its release, ''IBM 1401, A User's Manual'' received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Pitchfork's Mark Richardson gave it a 6.9, saying that the record "begins beautifully" and has a "powerful finish", "but the long sag in the middle makes ''IBM 1401 – A User's Manual'' a bit harder to recommend overall." Sal Cinquemani for Slant Magazine said that the album "gives you the sense of hearing something truly ancient being married to something very modern and present, and, then, something very futuristic." Cinquemani praised the album's ambition and thematic work while noting that it was less musically varied. "Some theorists claim humans can simulate anything with a computer, even a soul," Cinquemani concluded, "and with ''IBM 1401 - A User’s Manual'', Jóhannsson comes chillingly close."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for ''IBM 1401, A User's Manual'' adapted from

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

. * Chris Bigg – art direction, design, photography * Arnar Bjarnason –

arranging In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech: ''Filharmonici města Prahy'') is a classical orchestra, predominantly composed of Czech classical, jazz and guest musicians. The history of the orchestra goes back to the Film Symphony Orchestr ...

–

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

* Elias Davidsson –

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

* Finnur Hakonarsson – mixing * Jan Holzner –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

– bells,

celeste Celeste may refer to: Geography * Mount Celeste, unofficial name of a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada * Celeste, Texas, a rural city in North Texas ** Celeste High School, public high school located in the city of Celeste, ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

, liner notes,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

, recording, vocals * Örn Kaldalóns – recording *

Vaughan Oliver Vaughan Oliver (12 September 1957 – 29 December 2019) was a British graphic designer based in Epsom, Surrey. Oliver was best known for his work with graphic design studios 23 Envelope and v23. Both studios maintained a close relationship with ...

– art direction, design * Erna Órnarsdóttir – vocals *

– ensemble * Nick Webb – mastering

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2006 albums Electronic albums by Icelandic artists 4AD albums Jóhann Jóhannsson albums