Barði Jóhannsson is the experienced Icelandic musician behind groups like Bang Gang, Lady & Bird and Starwalker, and an acclaimed composer who has worked on music for TV shows such as The O.C., X-Files and The L-Word, and has collaborated with first rate artists like M83’s Anthony Gonzales, AIR’s Jean-Benoit Dunckel, Ladytron, and more. Jóhannsson has naturally ventured into film scoring, and recently provided the music for Michele Civetta’s 2020 independent movie, Agony, starring Asia Argento.
“The famous Nordic melancholia is in my DNA and then I go different paths from there,” the artist explains. “Some of the music segments are melancholy, open and calm but with an underlying twist. This reflects the characters in the film.”
Agony brims with tension and unnerve, working its way through both classic and contemporary approaches to film composition, often playing with a denser heavy-synth direction, and other times staying close to a more traditional blueprint. The same goes for Jóhannsson's perspective on instrumentation, as he frequently gives his own industrial spin to a centrally classical proclivity.
Jóhannsson, who has also composed the score for Nils Tavernier’s The Finishers, and co-wrote David Guy Levy’s Would You Rather score, seems to be firmly establishing himself as a developing film composer with Agony which makes for a very drawing and arresting listen.
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