Episode 142: The Music of the Spheres: On Jóhann Jóhannsson's "Last and First Men"

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2023

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jóhann Jóhannsson was one of contemporary cinema's greatest score composers when he passed away in 2018 at the young age of 48. Last and First Men, his enigmatic directorial debut, was released shortly after in 2020. Based on a novel by the same name by the British science fiction writer Olaf Stapleton, the film offers a sustained meditation on the prospect of extinction, the eventuality of humanity's disappearance from the comos. In this episode, JF and Phil discuss the images and sounds of the film as they flicker and swell against the backdrop of nonbeing that envelops us all. The conversation touches on the idea of beauty, Brutalist architecture, modernism, and futurity. Preorder Pierre-Yves Martel's album Mer bleue. Support us on Patreon and gain access to Phil's ongoing podcast on Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. Listen to volume 1 and volume 2 of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop REFERENCES Jóhann Jóhannsson, Last and First Men Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, SNL character Spomeniks, Yugoslavian monuments Olaf Stapleton, The Last and First Men Woody Allen, Hannah and Her Sisters The Last of Us, television show Ray Brassier, Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction Weird Studies, Episode 2 on Garmonbozia Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize Speech Weird Studies Episode 139 on Art Power Numenius, Platonist philosopher Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, What is Philosophy? Jia Tolentino, “The Overwhelming Emotion of Hearing Toto’s “Africa” Weird Studies, Episode 110 on “The Glass Bead Game” D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:03.3	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.8	For more episodes or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdstudies.com. I am here to do
0:51.2	two things.
0:52.6	Chew bubblegum and kick ass.
0:55.1	And I'm all out of bubblegum.
0:58.5	And ass kickings.
1:00.4	So, instead, my two things will be telling you about Pierre Eve Martel's new album
1:05.0	and talking about the music of the spheres, if those are even two different things.
1:12.1	Pierre Eve Martel's music is the soundtrack of weird studies, and if you have listened to the
1:17.3	show for any length of time, you know how versatile he is. Any given week, you might hear
1:22.7	modal jazz, modular synth, pedal lap steel, boards of Canada-style electronica, Twin Peaks-style noir
1:30.6	soundscape, or something entirely different. One of Pierre-Eves' many instruments is the
1:36.0	viol da Gamba, a bowed string instrument that sounds like the cello's wild country cousin. The music
1:41.8	you'll hear on today's episode includes two tracks from Pierre
1:45.0	Eve's upcoming album, Mare Bleu, a collection of solo gamba improvisations. I encourage you to support
1:51.7	this project by pre-ordering the album on Pierre Yves' bandcamp page. When you pre-order, you'll get to
1:58.5	download four tracks immediately and will receive the complete
2:01.7	album when it is officially released on May 1st. There will be a link in the show notes, and you can
2:07.4	also just Google Pierre Eve Martel Bandcamp. Okay, now for the music of the spheres. I'm about to
2:15.1	hit you with something that will probably seem a little dry, abstruse, perhaps irrelevant. I'm about to hit you with something that will probably seem a little dry,
	...

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