Jóhann Jóhannsson has released well over 20 albums in his career. Who knows how many sound documents still lie in the drawer that could be released posthumously. Kristoffer Cornils and Thaddeus Herrmann regularly review the composer's work-chronologically, album by album. In the tenth edition, they devote themselves to a soundtrack work that was released seven years after the associated film: "White Black Boy" by Camilla Magid.
Kristoffer: We are already dealing with the next posthumously released soundtrack after "Personal Effects" and the second commissioned work of 2012 after "Copenhagen Dreams"-we will turn to the third next time. We can see that, as the decade dawns, Jóhannsson's career as a soundtrack composer takes off. And indeed, it is to take a while before he reports back with passion projects like "End of Summer" and finally his next solo release, "Orphée". This album here was released rather quietly in 2019. Therefore, the music passed me by until I had a look at our schedule for this series and realised that there were 13 previously unheard tracks waiting for me. I first listened to them over the phone, so rather lo-fi. It was a beautiful day in late spring and I was working away in the kitchen, if I remember correctly. "White Black Boy" provided the perfect soundtrack for this moment and the rather mediocre playback quality seemed to add to the whole thing rather than ruin it. Many of these pieces have a certain patina anyway, much like on "Copenhagen Dreams". Only the basic tone is much friendlier, lighter-less melancholic. That's surprising given the subject of the film. But anyhow, I like this soundtrack very much. The film's success seemed to have been moderate, the IMDB the algorithm only suggests other indie productions to which Jóhannsson has contributed the soundtrack, which I think is a clear indication that it did not really leave a mark. I haven't watched it yet, but would love to. How do you feel about it? I had the impression from the start that you weren't a particularly big fan, at least of the music.