A Song For Europa / 2016

“A Song for Europa’ is one of the key tracks from Jóhann Jóhannsson’s release ‘Orphée’ on Deutsche Grammophon. Typically for Johann, the work is a beautifully atmospheric composition, one that immerses the listener into the strange recordings of the ‘Numbers Stations’: a category of shortwave radio station broadcasts characterized by readings of number lists, letters and coded messages from a forgotten era. It is to these lost, lonely voices that Johan has turned, capturing the enigmatic transmission of encoded information to persons elsewhere, and reflecting them back within a new context. In response, Studio AKA director Gergely Wootsch has created a considered and thoughtful animated film, which crosses literal boundaries and thresholds as it drifts along a desolate cold war landscape, following the haunting voice as it searches for a listener.