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JÓHANN JÓHANNSONTHE MINERS’ HYMNS

Format: CD/2xLPNOT AVAILABLE FOR EXPORT

File Under: Avant-Garde/Modern Composition

Release date: 6/7/11

TRACKLISTING1. They Being Dead yet Speaketh2. An Injury To One is the Concern of All3. Freedom From Want and Fear4. There is No Safe Side but the Side of Truth5. Industrial and Provident, We Unite to Assist Each Other6. The Cause of Labour is the Hope of the World

Jóhann Jóhannson’s FatCat debut is the haunt-ing product of a collaboration between the Icelandic composer and acclaimed American avant-garde filmmaker Bill Morrison (Decasia). The Miners’ Hymns is the score for Morrison’s film of the same name, a collection of richly evocative imagery treating the plight of coalmin-ers in Northeast England, which will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

Originally commissioned as a live performance for Durham, England’s gala international trade union festival celebrating the area’s mining history, the film and its score celebrate social, cultural, and political aspects of the now-extinct mining industry in the region, and the corresponding tradition of colliery brass bands.

The film focuses touching on the terrible hardship of pit work, the role of Trade Unions in organising and fighting for workers' rights, and the pitched battles with police during the 1984 strike as Thatcher's government sounded the death knell for the industry. Jóhannson’s breath-taking score, recorded live in the Durham Cathe-dral where the original performances were held, heralds a welcome return to brass instru-mentation for the composer.

The Miners’ Hymns is performed by a 16-piece brass ensemble led by noted Icelandic conductor Gudni Franzson and features the Durham Cathedral organ and organist Robert Houssart, as well as Jóhannson’s trademark electronics. Lamenting and almost droning in moments, sweeping and almost heartstoppingly dynamic in others, The Miners’ Hymns stands alone to demonstrate how a single body of instruments can be used to create chilling, stirring, and powerfully evocative music of genuine beauty.

Described as an “intrepid musical enigma” by the BBC, Jóhann Jóhannson has been moving listeners with his forward-thinking, emotive sonic experiments for nearly a decade; his place in the forefront of the broad-reaching post-classical/modern composition field is well-deservedly cemented. Jóhannson will be making special headline appearances in the US to support The Miners’ Hymns.

SELLING POINTS

Full national public/classical radio campaign by Chouette

Full national indie/classical press campaigns

Catalog scans total over 10K

The Miners’ Hymns film will appear at nationally renowned Tribeca Film Festival in April

Jóhann Jóhannson track used in high-profile trailer/campaign for upcoming action film Battle For Los Angeles

FAT1313CDUPC: 600116131324 Box 25

FAT1313LPUPC: 60011613137Box 20Vinyl is non-returnable