
Died at 56
male
Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson (19 September 1969 – 9 February 2018) was an Icelandic composer who wrote music for a wide array of media including theater, dance, television and films. His work is stylized by its blending of traditional orchestration with contemporary electronic elements. Jóhann released solo albums from 2002 onward. In 2016, he signed with Deutsche Grammophon, through which he released his last solo album, Orphée. Some of his works in film include the original scores for Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners, Sicario, and Arrival, and James Marsh's The Theory of Everything. Jóhannsson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for both The Theory of Everything and Sicario, and won a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for the former. He earned a second Golden Globe nomination for Arrival. He was a music and sound consultant on Mother!, directed by Darren Aronofsky in 2017. His scores for Mary Magdalene and Mandy were released posthumously. His only directorial work, Last and First Men, premiered at the Manchester International Festival in 2017, where he also performed the score live with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jóhann Jóhannsson

Composer
for Composer in Josh Trank's Shadow of the Colossus
Suggested by michaelcosby

A young slave named Wander flees his brutal life and falls in love with Mono, a cursed girl blamed for her mother's death. When her drunken father accidentally kills her, Wander steals an ancient sword and rides to the Forbidden Land. There, the disembodied spirit Dormin offers to revive Mono—if Wander slays sixteen giant colossi guarding the land. As Wander kills each magnificent creature, dark tendrils pierce his body, slowly transforming him. Lord Emon and his warriors hunt him, but Wander persists. After his horse Agro sacrifices himself to save Wander, Wander defeats the final colossus—only to discover Dormin has used him to resurrect its own monstrous form. Wander fights for control, sacrifices himself to stop Dormin, and is reincarnated as a baby in a secret garden where Mono and the surviving Agro find him.