Drone Mass by Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson is serene and sacred, but also terrifying ★★★★☆

The Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson chose an apt title for a choral work that he wrote in 2015 at the request of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. To be Drone Mass covers the charge: the piece for four strings, six voices and electronics sounds on the one hand like a ‘drone’ and therefore like that enchanting and elongated, eternally buzzing sound from, for example, Indian traditional music. But thanks to the voices of the Theater of Voices conducted by Paul Hillier, the nearly hour-long work also feels like religious church singing, with pure polyphony harking back to the Renaissance.

The composer who died in 2018, best known for his gripping soundtracks, has always been careful not to attach too much meaning to his music. He liked to be carried away by his emotions and free, creative spirit. But he confessed before Drone Mass also to have been inspired by that other drone, the small floating object that registers or even bombs us humans. In the music that has now been released on an album for the first time, you can really hear how the violins, cellos and voices arise and disappear again as floating elements.

But the eleven-part piece works especially well if you take the mind off it. The sound universe that Jóhannsson creates is unique and beautiful. In Two is Apocryphal serene violins, sopranos and bass voices slowly descend to a stilled plain, in a wordless cadence. The atmosphere is mystical, as in the sacred minimal music of Arvo Pärt. Tryptich in Masso after that is more disturbing: the Icelander allows shrill dissonances to come up with thrusting vocals, only to find peace with repetitive violins reminiscent of the hypnotic oeuvres of Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

The sound world becomes dark and massive when Jóhannsson lets heavy electronic sounds roll in, alongside slowly deflecting guttural sounds from another world. The music balances beautifully between calm ambient and minimal and terrifying horror music. The piece The Low Drone of Circulating Blood for example, had in the score for The Shining by Stanley Kubrick would not be out of place. A very strong autonomous work by Jóhannsson, which once again shows how much the composer is missed.