12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann

Echo Collective

The innovative and prolific Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (1969 2018) would have turned fifty years old this year, on September 19. Honoring him and his legacy, Deutsche Grammophon is set to release an outstanding new studio album featuring the world premiere recording of his piece 12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann

Is the creative process fundamentally the same for the composer writing music as it is for the visual artist painting a picture? Jóhann Jóhannsson and the Berlin based painter Thilo Heinzmann explored this profound question throughout a four year dialogue. The musical result is a twelve movement string quartet that considerably stands out among Jóhannsson’s multiple award winning works. Jóhannsson was “obsessed with the texture of sound”, regularly bending the barriers between classical and electronic music. With his eclectic style, he created hypnotically lyrical images of outstanding refinement. The delicacy and beauty of Jóhannsson’s puristic string quartet writing in 12 Conversations reveals what could be referred to as the essence of his sound. After his sudden passing in February 2018, Jóhannsson’s long term musical collaborators of Echo Collective (currently touring Henosis with Joep Beving) brought the score to life through their previous experience of performing his earlier work ( Orphée ), as well as through conversations with the composer himself about this extraordinary set of works.

De IJslandse componist Jóhann Jóhannsson plots overleden in 2018, hield er steeds van om verschillende kunstvormen samen te brengen. Zo kon hij naadloos muziek, film, literatuur en theater op elkaar laten aansluiten. De link met beeldende kunst ontbrak echter. Tot één van de bekendste en grootste Britse kunstverzamelaars - Richard Thomas – het idee opperde om muziek te componeren bij het werk van de in Berlijn residerende kunstenaar Thilo Heinzmann. Heinzmann dacht op zijn beurt meteen aan Jóhann Jóhannsson. Na enkele ontmoetingen trok Jóhannsson zich terug in zijn studio met enkele werken van Heinzmann. Het resultaat: ‘12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann’, dat nu bij Deutsche Grammofon verschijnt. Twaalf prachtig uitgepuurde composities, ontdaan van alle elektronische ballast en geschreven voor een strijkkwartet. Jóhannsson vroeg nog voor zijn dood aan Echo Collective om zijn uitgeschreven composities op te nemen.

Jóhannsson, J:
 12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann
  1. Manifest
  2. Low
  3. Stuk
  4. Shell
  5. Zurich
  6. Harm
  7. Lacrimosa
  8. Pol
  9. Form
  10. Arc
  11. Danse
  12. Gold