Jóhann Jóhannsson, Echo Collective – 12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann

When Jóhann Jóhannsson died unexpectedly in Berlin in the winter of 2018, a highly interesting interplay of the arts also ended. Jóhann Jóhannsson had dared to let music and literature, music and theatre, music and film communicate with each other in his compositions, very innovative, often melancholic, always profound, merging classical and electronic elements.

The philanthropist and art collector Richard Thomas was interested in precisely this kind of boundary crossing. He envisioned a work in which the visual arts and music would enter into a dialogue, but not paint over each other, not chase each other in production and interpretation, but become one. And he had an artist in mind, the Berlin painter Thilo Heinzmann, who in turn immediately thought of Jóhann Jóhannsson.

"I believe in the power of simplicity and emotional honesty." Jóhann Jóhannsson (1969-2018) Is a composer's creative process of writing music the same as a visual artist's process of painting a picture? 12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann is the result of a four-year dialogue and congenial collaboration between Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson and Berlin-based painter Thilo Heinzmann to explore this fascinating question. The twelve-movement string quartet is unique among the works of the award-winning composer, who was obsessed with the essence of sound and created soundscapes of hypnotic emotional impact. Otherwise better known for his innovative straddling of electronic and classical elements, in 12 Conversations Jóhannsson condenses his sonic world into a string quartet whose intimate and subtle sonic language produces poignant moments of captivating beauty.