''Orphée'' is a solo studio album by Icelandic composer

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 ...

. It was released on 16 September 2016, through

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

. It received generally favorable reviews from critics.

Background

The music of ''Orphée'' is inspired by

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

's film of the same name,

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

's interpretation of the

Orpheus In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...

myth, and Jóhann Jóhannsson's own life changes, specifically his relocation from

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. The album includes contributions from Jóhannsson (on piano, electronics, pipe organ, and electric organ),

Hildur Guðnadóttir Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir (born 4 September 1982) is an Icelandic musician and composer. A classically trained cellist, she has played and recorded with the bands Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle, Múm, and Stórsveit Nix Noltes, and ...

(on cello), the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Air Lyndhurst String Orchestra (conducted by Anthony Weeden), and the

Theatre of Voices Theatre of Voices is a vocal ensemble founded by baritone Paul Hillier in 1990;www.paulhillier.net
. Retrieved March 9 ...

(conducted by

Paul Hillier Paul Douglas Hillier OBE (born 9 February 1949) is an English conductor, music director and baritone. He specializes in both early and contemporary classical music, especially that by composers Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt. He was a co-founder o ...

). Recordings of

numbers station A numbers station is a shortwave radio station characterized by broadcasts of formatted numbers, which are believed to be addressed to intelligence officers operating in foreign countries. Most identified stations use speech synthesis to voca ...

s are also used in the album.

Critical reception

Kate Molleson of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' commented that Jóhann Jóhannsson "does lush, spacious things with piano, organ, solo cello, string quartet, string orchestra, voices and crackling electronics, and the arrangements are sensitively done, though I can't say I found much compelling drama in it." Heather Phares of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

stated, "Like ''And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees'', ''Orphée'' is both more intimate than some of his larger works, and immediately recognizable as Jóhannsson's." She added, "On ''Orphée'', Jóhannsson expresses the need to let some things and people go to let new ones in with remarkable nuance, as well as the affecting beauty fans have come to know and love." Mark Mobley of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

stated, "If you're into

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

and

Michael Nyman Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his lengthy ...

and

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in p ...

and movie soundtracks in general, this could be for you."

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. Musicians *

– piano, electronics, pipe organ, electric organ, arrangement, orchestration, production, recording *

– cello American Contemporary Music Ensemble * Yuki Numata Resnick – violin * Caleb Burhans – violin * Ben Russell – viola * Clarice Jensen – cello Air Lyndhurst String Orchestra * Anthony Weeden – conducting, additional orchestration

Theatre of Voices Theatre of Voices is a vocal ensemble founded by baritone Paul Hillier in 1990;www.paulhillier.net
. Retrieved March 9 ...

– conducting *

Else Torp Else Torp is a Danish soprano born 1968 in Roskilde. Career She is a member of Paul Hillier's Theatre of Voices, with whom she sings ancient and baroque works of composers such as Peter Abelard, Roland de Lassus, Thomas Tallis, and Heinrich ...

– soprano vocals * Signe Asmussen – mezzo-soprano vocals * Ellen Marie Brink Christensen – mezzo-soprano vocals * Elenor Wiman – mezzo-soprano vocals * Kristin Mulders – mezzo-soprano vocals *

Chris Watson John Christian Watson (born Johan Cristian Tanck; 9 April 186718 November 1941) was an Australian politician who served as the third prime minister of Australia from April to August 1904. He held office as the inaugural federal leader of the Au ...

– tenor vocals * Paul Bentley-Angell – tenor vocals * Jakob Bloch Jespersen – bass-baritone vocals * Jakob Soelberg – bass-baritone vocals Technical personnel * Geoff Foster – recording * Preben Iwan – recording * Ívar Ragnarsson – recording * Mette Due – recording * Francesco Donadello – recording, mixing * Calyx Mastering – mastering * Owen Roberts – additional orchestration * Christian Badzura – executive production * Leonie Petersen – project management * Burkhard Bartsch – project management * Jens Schünemeyer – booklet editing * Anders Ladegaard – artwork * Jónatan Grétarsson – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Orphee (album) 2016 classical albums Deutsche Grammophon albums Jóhann Jóhannsson albums Music based on Metamorphoses Adaptations of works by Jean Cocteau