Jóhann Jóhannsson
An IBM mainframe humming in a Reykjavík data centre gave Jóhann Jóhannsson one of his most moving records. His father, an engineer, had coaxed melodies from the room-sized machine and taped them, and IBM 1401, A User's Manual set that ghostly computer music against a swelling string orchestra.
That blend of electronics, chamber instruments and glacial melancholy ran through Englabörn, Fordlândia and Orphée, and marked him out from other film composers. He scored Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners, Sicario and Arrival, earned Oscar nominations for Sicario and The Theory of Everything, and won a Golden Globe for the latter.
He died in Berlin in 2018, aged 48. His doom-laden Mandy soundtrack and Mary Magdalene, co-written with Hildur Guðnadóttir, were among his final work.
If you like Jóhann Jóhannsson you should check out: Hildur Guðnadóttir, Max Richter, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Nils Frahm, Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Sigur Rós, Brian Eno, Ludwig Göransson
