Johann Johannssson – The Miners’ Hymns.

Stream – ‘They being dead yet speaketh’

There are times when you talk with other music-obsessed friends and wonder navelgazingly about “what if?” scenarios*. Amongst the several I can think of, one of my faves is “what would classical music sound today?”

There’s the argument that soundtracks are the congener of classical music. This is debatable in a case by case basis, but when the soundtrack has the emotional charge that transports you to places hitherto unknown, you sort of yield towards this idea.

Johann Johannsson‘s The Miners’ Hymns feels like true classical music, with a unique fresh element that is the use of some electronica elements added to a mostly brass-based score.

The companion piece of Bill Morrisson’s film of the same name (shown to great lauds at Tribeca), The Miners’ Hymns  consists of six songs, 3 very long and unapologetically powerful and three shorter pieces with still enough punch to leave an impression.

Some of the titles are as ominous as descending through the unstable guts of the Earth to work for your daily wages. ‘They being dead yet speaketh’ gloomly opens the album, using its 10 minute length to sprawl around. The initial dirge-like chords are eventually joined by a brass section that takes a “less is more” approach with a few silent pauses.

This is a solemn album, something for a grey day with a drizzle lazily listing around, or maybe for a sunny day when you are a little crestfallen after the self-assessment isn’t what you expected. ‘An injury to one is the concern of all’ is possibly the darkest moment of the album, although the title does imply that the camaraderie that can only be borne of working with people who might not see another day is the strength of the miners’ profession.

Speaking of brass instruments, the lonesome refrain sported in ‘Freedom from want and fear’ is simply marvellous. Touching and slightly filled with dread, the emotion is exacerbated with a slightly subtle electronic ambient in the background that seeps through the silent cracks. The atmosphere in this track, as minimalistic as it might feel, is thick as mud. Be aware, though, that I’m a sucker for motifs full of melancholy, so I’m biased for this track.

The three short tracks are all pretty nifty, but it’s the closing track (not actually short – 7 whopping minutes) that really closes the deal. ‘The cause of labour is the hope of the world’ starts chaotically, with the aforementioned brass section being slowly drowned in by the orchestra in a very melancholic progression of notes. It’s simply beautiful and somehow, somewhere in all this sadness about an industry filled with tragedies, there are good things, whether the bonds formed and all the artworks inspired by the fall of the English coal mining industry. This song is pretty much a gem.

Without having watch the film but having read the description, it does feel that both film and soundtrack complement each other perfectly. Johannsson’s musical choices, mixing seamlessly brass and orchestra with electronica ambients feel sprawling and ominous, like the history shown in the film’s trailer.

Words: —Sam

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*We clearly don’t have our priorities in life sorted out straight.