Fordlandia

I would happily have bought Johan Jóhannsson's superb new album for the opening and closing tracks alone.

Fordlandia and How We Left Fordlandia run for 13:43 and 15:25, respectively, and are truly things of rare beauty.

In between those two abstract, symphonic masterpieces we have melodias i to iv which finally build into the final triumphant Melodia in which we are offered Guidelines For Space Propulsion, no less. 

As if that wasn't enough we are also treated to a chimeric, ariel view of that vast, untamed wilderness of Fordlandia before learning that, finally, The Great God Pan is Dead. 

Hurray!

I imagined Fordlandia might be a reference to the landscape of Jóhannsson's native Iceland but, in fact, it relates to Henry Ford who, in the 1920's, purchased vast tracts of land in Brazil with the intention of manufacturing rubber and, thus, cutting out the middle man and increasing profits. 

The plan was, predictably, a disaster not least because Ford didn't know what the hell he was doing and tried to enforce US prohibitionist ideology on Brazilian peasant workers who enjoyed a pint and a fag. 

The final straw came when Ford tried to make them eat hamburgers. The workers were revolted by these beef patties and they literally revolted, chasing their bosses into the jungle where they were eaten by tigers and pecked by enormous pachyglossal parrots. 

So listening to this extraordinary music don't think of glacial fjords or gabbroic geysers think of spare engine parts and the smell of rotten rubber in a decaying Amazonian hinterland. 

Actually think of what you want, only listen to the music. If you like it you might try it's predecessor, IBM 1401 - A User's Manual, which, more predictably, is about an IBM 1401 User's Manual.