Jóhann Jóhannsson, the Academy Award-nominated Icelander composer responsible for scoring Arrival, mother! and Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything, has passed away.
Photo: Sachyn Mital, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The report was confirmed by his manager, Tim Huson. Jóhannsson, whose stunning score for Arrival eerily ushered what felt like a new generation of scifi film storytelling, was in Berlin when he died. The cause is not immediately known. He was 48.
Alongside his above mentioned work, he was a longtime collaborator of io9 favourite Denis Villeneuve, having worked with him on Sicario, and he had a decorated career as a composer dating back to 2002. His manager issued a statement, saying, “I’m so very sad. Today, I lost my friend who was one of the most talented musicians and intelligent people I knew. We came a long way together.”
At Gizmodo, we’ll remember Jóhannsson as a brilliant composer of genre scores, a man who soundtracked one of the best sci-fi films of the past decade.
Below, I’m sharing one of the tracks from his incredible Arrival score. The whole thing is streaming. Today is a good day to listen.