Jóhann Jóhannsson: The Mary Magdalene composer who revelled in contradictions

The composer of Arrival, Sicario and The Theory of Everything died last month, with one of his final works now arriving on UK screens

‘Mary Magdalene’, which is in cinemas, showcases one of his last contributions as a composer

Cinema was struck by a sudden painful blow last month. Composer Jóhann Jóhannsson died on 10 February in Berlin, aged only 48. What he leaves behind is magnificent – scores to The Theory of Everything, Arrival, Sicario – but the ache of lost potential is still there.

There was a palpable sense of exploration to how Jóhannsson approached his work, of striding the rift we’ve carved between soundscape and score. And so lingers that tragic question: what more could he have discovered?

This week showcases one of his last contributions as a composer, the score for Garth Davis’s Mary Magdalene. His other final works: The Mercy, which debuted in UK cinemas the day before his death, and the Nicolas Cage-starring Mandy, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival but has yet to secure a UK release date.

The roots of Jóhannsson’s distinctive approach can be found in his native Iceland, where he began his career in indie rock and experimental electronic music, releasing his first album Englabörn in 2002.

Even when his path led him straight to Hollywood, he never abandoned his origins. He continued to release solo albums throughout his career, including 2004’s IBM 1401, A User’s Manual, a tribute to his father, who worked for the company and was one of Iceland’s first computer programmers. You can hear a tape recording of electromagnetic sounds emitted by the 1401 computer integrated into the work.

Jóhannsson’s heart pulsated with the electric, but it’s always been part of why his film work is so striking. He moulded himself into an artist who could be guided by harmonious contradictions: the traditional orchestration versus the modernist soundscape.

At first composing soundtracks for Icelandic films, Jóhannsson launched into popular acclaim through his work with Denis Villeneuve: Prisoners (2013), Sicario (2015) and Arrival (2016).

Villeneuve, as a director, has a firm grasp on how deep emotions can still thrive in an alienating atmosphere, and it’s this idea that’s felt so strongly in the score to Arrival. The awe and trepidation in the face of extraterrestrial life, represented in choral chanting and a heavy, steady rhythm.

But, also, a mother’s love. One powerful enough to transcend space and time, as the softer moments of Jóhannsson’s contributions find companionship in Max Richter’s “On the Nature of Daylight”, used in the film’s opening and closing scenes.

Prisoners saw a more direct interplay between the traditional and the modern, as the composer electronically processed the sound of a solo cello, so as to blend it into his wider orchestrations until the difference could barely be heard. He pursued the effect as he reckoned his strings should sound “cold”, so as to dispose of any sentimental notion that may be attached to the story of a man on the hunt for his missing daughter.

It worked, and the result is quietly chilling. More outrightly sinister is his score to Sicario; it’s here Jóhannsson proved he could create pure dread when needed, as seen in the film’s ambush at a border crossing – nerve-shredding before even a single shot has been fired.

At the other end of the scale, however, sits his Golden Globe-winning score for The Theory of Everything. Mostly traditional in form, Jóhannsson’s main theme features a piano melody as industrious as the workings of Stephen Hawking’s mind, while not neglecting the film’s more romantic leanings, tracking the relationship between Hawking and his first wife Jane.

In an interview with Collider, he admitted such “pure orchestral expression” was a new direction for him as an artist, but it was “something that I enjoyed”.

That said, Jóhannsson’s soundscaping instincts weren’t entirely absent here: the moment in which Hawking learns that he has motor neurone disease are underpinned by a low hum. The sound of a mind consumed by news almost too all-encompassing to bear.

Another beautiful contradiction: Jóhannsson knew exactly when his voice was vital, but also when it was not. Indeed, he’s found a strange fame in which he’s almost as well-known for his scores that never made it to screen.

When it came to Blade Runner 2049, Villeneuve turned naturally to his favoured collaborator. However, it ended in a failed enterprise, with Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch stepping in to deliver the final score.

Though Jóhannsson was contractually bound not to discuss what occurred, it was Villeneuve’s comments that seemed to illuminate a deep selflessness in Johansson’s approach to his work.

He told Al Arabiya English: “The thing I will say is that making movies is a laboratory. It’s an artistic process. You cannot plan things. Jóhann Jóhannsson is one of my favourite composers alive today. He’s a very strong artist. But the movie needed something different, and I needed to go back to something closer to Vangelis. Jóhann and I decided that I will need to go in another direction.”

That idea of mutual decision also crops up during the production of Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!, which saw Jóhannsson slowly step away from the role of composer, largely fulfilling the boots of sound and music consultant.

Working closely with sound designer Craig Henighan, Jóhannsson’s work is still in the finished film but is so integrated into the natural sounds of the film’s house and its surrounding chaos that it’s almost invisible. “We would use the term a lot: the film pushed back,” Henighan noted to IndieWire.

It’s always a rare thing to see in an artist, and yet Jóhannsson exuded it. He put the work first, he let it speak to him. And he listened, no matter if it pushed him away or in new directions. He embraced his art.

Mary Magdalene hits UK cinemas 16 March.