Fordlandia is the sixth full-length studio album by Icelandic

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

-born musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 Jóhann Jóhannsson

Jóhann Jóhannsson

Jóhann Jóhannsson is an Icelandic musician, composer and producer. He is a co-founder of Kitchen Motors in Reykjavík, the art organization/think tank/record label which specializes in initiating collaborations, promoting concerts and exhibitions, performances, chamber operas, producing films,...

. The album was released on 3 November 2008 via 4AD

4AD

4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, funded by Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today...

. The album is thematically influenced by the failure of Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...

's Brazilian rubber plant Fordlandia

Fordlândia

Fordlândia is a now-abandoned, prefabricated industrial town established in the Amazon Rainforest in 1928 by American industrialist Henry Ford to secure a source of cultivated rubber for the automobile manufacturing operations of the Ford Motor Company in the United States...

. On his official website, Jóhannsson explained the album's relation to the Henry Ford-owned location:

One of the two main threads running through it is this idea of failed utopia, as represented by the "Fordlândia" title - the story of the rubber plantation Henry Ford established in the Amazon in the 1920s, and his dreams of creating an idealized American town in the middle of the jungle complete with white picket fences, hamburgers and alcohol prohibition. The project – started because of the high price Ford had to pay for the rubber necessary for his cars' tyres – failed, of course, as the indigenous workers soon rioted against the alien conditions.

Track listing

1. "Fordlandia" – 13:42
2. "melodia (i)" – 1:56
3. "The Rocket Builder (Lo Pan!)" – 6:24
4. "melodia (ii)" – 1:48
5. "Fordlandia – Aerial View" – 4:32
6. "melodia (iii)" – 3:12
7. "Chimaerica" – 3:22
8. "melodia (iv)" – 2:45
9. "The Great God Pan Is Dead" – 4:55
10. "Melodia (Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device Based on Heim's Quantum Theory)" – 9:03
11. "How We Left Fordlandia" – 15:24

Digital download bonus track

12. "Abandoned Locomotive Overgrown by Luxuriant Vegetation" – 5:16

Credits

• Written, arranged, and produced by Jóhann Jóhannsson.
  • Jóhann Jóhannsson – piano, organ, pipe organ, electric organ, guitar, and electronics.
  • Matthias M.D. Hemstock – percussion and electronics on tracks 3, 5, 10, and 11.
  • Guðmundur Sigurðsson – pipe organ on track 7.
  • Guðni Franzson – clarinet on tracks 2, 4, and 8.
  • Bohumil Kotmel – concert master on tracks 1, 9, 10, and 11.
  • Miriam Nemcova – conductor on tracks 1, 9, 10, and 11.
  • James Fitzpatrick – orchestra contractor.
  • The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus – orchestra and choir on tracks 1, 9, 10, and 11.
  • Orchestrated by Jóhann Jóhannsson.
  • Tracks 10 and 11 orchestrated by Arnar Bjarnason.
  • Strings on tracks 3 and 4 by Guðmundur Sigurðsson, Hrafnkell Orri Egilsson, Una Sveinbjarnardóttir, and Greta Guðnadóttir.
  • Storm recordings on track 9 by BJ Nilsen.
• Orchestra (Prague) recorded by Jan Holzner.
• Pipe organ (Drammen) recorded by Thomas Wolden.
• String quartet and pipe organ (both in Reykjavik) recorded by Finnur Hákonarsson.
• Mastered by Steve Rooke.
• Mixed by Finnur Hákonarsson and Jóhann Jóhannsson.
• Art direction and design by Vaughan Oliver
  Vaughan Oliver
  Vaughan Oliver is a British graphic designer based in Epsom, South of London. Oliver is most noted for his work with graphic design studios 23 Envelope and v23...
  
  at v23.
• Artwork concept by Jóhann Jóhannsson.
• Design assistance by Chris Bigg and Stuart Munro.
• Rocket image manipulation by Marc Atkins.