Jóhann Jóhannsson – “A Song for Europa” (video) (premiere)

The year after Jóhann Jóhannsson won a Golden Globe for his score for The Theory of Everything, the Icelandic composer continues to stay at the top of his game. In 2016, Jóhannsson has released two works, his third collaboration with director Denis Villeneuve for the score of Arrival and his first artist album in over seven years, Orphée.

PopMatters is premiering the video, directed by Gergely Wootsch, for the second track on Orphée “A Song for Europa” below. The song features a young female voice reciting numbers in German, a coded message that may have been broadcast on a Numbers Station during the Cold War. The cold voice is set against lush strings which gives the piece a strong sense of melancholy but when placed upon the visual of the specter of a radio signal stretching over the Berlin Wall, there is a sense of hope.