JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON

(19 September 1969 - 9 February 2018)

The Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, who has died at the premature age of 48, was a prolific musician who notched up over forty film scores since his first film in 2000, The Icelandic Dream. For many years he worked on films and television in Iceland but then began to be recognised for his work on three Dennis Villeneuve films, Prisoners, Sicario and Arrival. However, his score for Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 was rejected. As well as working in the US, Jóhannsson still scored films in Iceland, Denmark and Hungary and he worked with James Marsh on both The Theory of Everything and The Mercy. He was a music and sound consultant on Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! Of his last work, Mandy, with Nicolas Cage and Andrea Riseborough, awaits a UK release, while Garth Davis’s Mary Magdalene is due to be released in the UK on 16 March. Jóhann Jóhannsson was Oscar-nominated for The Theory of Everything and Sicario.

MICHAEL DARVELL