BIO
Bardi Johannsson is one of Iceland's most successful artist/writer/producers - best known for Bang Gang (they did an extensive US tour/promo campaign in 2006) and as one half of Lady & Bird (with French chanteuse/songwriter, Keren Ann).
Haxan was nominated for album of the year; the 2007 Icelandic Music Awards! Recorded with the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, this is a moody late night gothic instrumental soundtrack created for the cult 1920s silent film, HAXAN, banned for decades due to its nudity, witchcraft and Satanic imagery (it was re-released in the 60s as Haxan, Witchcraft Through The Ages with commentary by Wiliam Burroughs).
CD is packaged as a deluxe 6 panel digipak with mini poster & full liner notes. Based in Reyjavik, Iceland (but spending just as much time in the USA and Paris) Bardi Johannsson is a rock musician, film composer, writer, TV host, author, clothing designer, film director, and more. The first commercially released song he made (as Bang Gang) was signed to Warner France. The record was quite atmospheric and Bardi was soon contacted by the film and TV industry in Iceland; not only for music but also for producing, writing and hosting (the surrealist TV show, Konfekt). Since then, Bardi has written music for 3 films, numerous TV shows, commercials (Emporio Armani, Yves Rocher, Citroën) and documentaries (including And Bjork Of Course, and Life and Death of Andy Warhol).
Bardi has been very involved in audio/visual projects; codirecting his first short film, Red Death, for the Pompidou Museum in Paris and co-writing a fake documentary about himself that's traveled to many film festivals around the world (see it on YouTube as Who is Bardi?). He's toured Japan, Scandinavia, USA, France with Bang Gang; a true international man of mystery. However, the truth remains that he is nothing but a romantic disguised as a phantom lurking in and out of space just as the dead do to simply convince us into believing that sad songs could never feel so good.
The Bang Gang album, Something Wrong, will be released Stateside in early April. America will never be the same.
Si Benjamin Christensen était un réalisateur d'aujourd'hui ou si Bardi Johannsson avait vécu dans les années 20, leur collaboration eut été d'une évidence limpide. Ces deux génies créatifs sont réunis aujourd'hui autour du projet HAXAN .
HAXAN, film d'horreur culte suédois datant de 1922 et véritable curiosité cinématographique, censuré pendant des années pour son adoration du Diable et de sa nudité fut projeté en 2004 au « Forum Des Images » à Paris, accompagné d'une composition de Bardi Johannsson pour 2 violons, percussions et machines. Prolongeant l'expérience, Bardi réponds à l'invitation du « Festival Lumières d'Hiver » de Reykjavik et décide à cette occasion de travailler avec Thorir Baldursson afin de développer une version alternative de HAXAN pour l'Orchestre National Philharmonique D'Islande en février 2005. Logiquement, il décide d'enregistrer cette composition à Sofia avec la complicité de l'Orchestre Symphonique Bulgare et de la Maison de la Radio de Sofia.
La production fut finalisée en Islande et le mix terminé en 2006. Certains morceaux de ce disque sont des versions courtes des versions originales.
HAXAN est un projet véritablement unique chargé de mystère poétique qui continue aujourd'hui encore de stupéfier ceux qui l'ont approché.
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