Jul 14, 2018

The final recording of the great composer Jóhann Jóhansson was his score for upcoming horror-thriller Mandy, starring Nicholas Cage. The single “Children of the New Dawn” was just released via Lakeshore Records. Like Austin’s S U R V I V E, it captures perfectly the analog synth music of ‘80s low budget B-movies. The score was co-produced by Jóhannsson and Randall Dunn (produced Sunn O)))) and features Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley on guitar.

Here’s some context from the press release:

Lakeshore Records in conjunction with Invada Records will release Jóhann Jóhannsson’s final work, his original score to the forthcoming film Mandy. The film and soundtrack will be released seven months after his heartbreaking and untimely death in February. Jóhannsson’s manager, Tim Husom, remembers Jóhann and how the project came about: “My friend and client Jóhann Jóhannsson passed away on February 9, 2018. The last music he created before his death was the score to Mandy. We were working on it right up until the film was delivered to Sundance in early January, 2018. Back in August of 2016 we received a call from Daniel Noah at SpectreVision about this crazy new horror film they were starting that starred Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roach, and directed by Panos Cosmatos. Jóhann had just finished his score for Denis Villeneuve’s film, Arrival, when the Mandy mood boards were sent over to us. They were unbelievably cool and scary. Our interest was hooked immediately. Jóhann’s first email response to me about the project was ‘Seriously, his (Panos) Beyond The Black Rainbow film is a masterpiece! I love it. And the way he uses music.’ To Jóhann, the idea of working on Mandy with Panos and SpectreVision was bringing some much needed balance to his score career and a perfect next step.”