Jóhann Jóhannsson - Drone Mass (Trailer)

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Deutsche Grammophon releases the long-awaited recording of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Drone Mass’, performed by the ACME, Theatre of Voices and conducted by Paul Hillier. Described as “a contemporary oratorio” by Jóhann himself, this exceptional work, written for voices, string quartet, and electronics, was inspired by The Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians, one of the codices in the Nag Hammadi library, discovered in 1945 and written in the 1st or 2nd century AD.
In Jóhann’s own words: “The text contains a hymn, unusual in that it consists of a seemingly meaningless series of vowels. The vowels of the final paragraph (uaei eis aei ei o ei ei os ei) can be read (in Greek) as ‘who exists as Son forever and ever. You are what you are, you are what you are’. This, along with other Gnostic texts, is the main text material used in the piece. I was interested in the Gnostic idea of the material world being the creation of a malevolent demiurge-a false god-and that eating the fruit of Knowledge was the first step out of the bondage of cruel and oppressive powers. I was also interested in the idea of the drone, both as a musical device, the bourdon, but also the all-seeing, sometimes benevolent and sometimes lethal eyes that pervade our skies. I have no specific thoughts about how these ideas relate to each other but, to me, they have some kind of poetic resonance which is usually enough for me.”
THEATRE OF VOICES
ELSE TORP, KATE MACOBOY sopranos
SIGNE ASMUSSEN mezzo-soprano
IRIS OJA alto
PAUL BENTLEY-ANGELL,
JAKOB SKJOLDBORG tenors
JAKOB BLOCH JESPERSEN bass-baritone
STEFFEN BRUUN bass
PAUL HILLIER artistic director
& conductor
FRANCESCO DONADELLO production & recording
SIMON GOFF assistant recording engineer
CHRISTIAN BADURA & ANUSCH ALIMIRZAIE executive producer
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC ENSEMBLE
LAURA LUTZKE, BEN RUSSELL violins
CALEB BURHANS viola
CLARICE JENSEN cello & artistic director