Johann Johannsson – The Miners’ Hymns album review

The year is 1984, the place, Orgreave, South Yorkshire, England.  Truncheon wielding police on horseback clash with striking miners, as Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party cracks down on the mighty National Union of Mineworkers.  Ultimately the strike fails, the coal industry is dismantled, and ten people are killed.

This is only part of the story behind The Miners’ Hymns, Icelandic modern composer Johann Johannsson’s soundtrack to Bill Morrison’s film of the same name.  The rest of the story?  Start with Emile Zola’s 1884 novel, “Germinal.”  Imagine the sweat soaked bodies of dust blackened girls and boys sliding through crumbling passageways decade after decade, the twelve hour workdays, the desperation, but also the hope for change.  Then labor finally unites.

And with the unions, pride.  In its heyday the Miners’ Gala in Durham County, North East England, drew upwards of 250,000 people.  It carries on today, although the coal industry is long gone and the gala has been incorporated into Brass: The Durham International Festival, which commissioned Bill Morrison’s striking documentary.  Johannsson’s soundtrack for the film is broken into six sections which carry titles taken from the banners the Trade Union would fly.  I think those titles bare mentioning here:

 “They Being Dead Yet Speaketh”

“An Injury To One Is The Concern Of All”

“Freedom From Want And Fear”

“There Is No Safe Side But The Side Of Truth”

“Industrial And Provident, We Unite To Assist Each Other”

“The Cause Of Labour Is The Hope Of The World”

Recorded live in Durham Cathedral by a 16 member brass ensemble led by fellow Icelander Gudni Franzson, Johannsson later recorded there alone to add electronic embellishments.  After listening many times, I figured out that the strange ticking sound on “There Is No Safe Side But The Side Of Truth” was not ruffling pages.  It’s the sound of a pick striking away at a wall of coal, followed by the gentle thump as a piece is broken loose.

There is a tremendous feeling of space in The Miners’ Hymns, which is ironic given the cramped conditions of the mines.  The irony doesn’t end there.  The Icelandic economy now lies in partial ruins because of the greed of a handful of bankers, as does arguably much of the world’s.  The Miners’ Hymns is at once a grand portrait of human nobility, and a heartbreaking chronicle of what has befallen us.