Award-winning composer and producer Jóhann Jóhannsson, who combined classical sounds and modern electronics on the acclaimed soundtracks to “Sicario,” “Arrival,” and “The Theory of Everything,” has died at age 48.
His manager Tim Husom announced Saturday that Jóhannsson was found dead Friday in his Berlin apartment. More details were not immediately available.
“Today, I lost my friend who was one of the most talented musicians and intelligent people I knew,” Husom said in a statement.
A native of Reykjavík, Iceland who started out as a rock guitarist, Jóhannsson began scoring film in Iceland, before winning a Golden Globe and received Grammy and Oscar nominations for “The Theory of Everything. His music for the 2014 biopic, which starred Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking, captured the film’s intimacy as well as the ideas of a physicist that spanned the universe and time.
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Jóhannsson also received an Oscar nomination for the 2015 movie “Sicario.” A thriller set on the U.S.-Mexico border, his music consisting of low woodwinds and strings, percussion and an incessant, throbbing pulse evoking a descent into the underground, savage world of drug traffickers.
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His music for the 2016 science fiction film “Arrival,” in which Amy Adams played a linguist trying to interpret the language of visiting aliens, used heavily-processed vocalizations (performed by an ensemble called Theatre of Voices) and tape loops to create an other-worldly soundscape of mystery, dread and hope.
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“Arrival” earned him Golden Globe, BAFTA and Grammy nominations.
“I spend a lot of time working on sounds and finding sounds and finding ways of creating something … looking at things that excite me, that I haven’t heard,” Jóhannsson told the online publication Consequence of Sound in 2016.
His other film credits include “Prisoners,” Darren Aronofsky’s “Mother!” and “The Mercy.” “Mary Magdalene,” starring Rooney Mara, is due to open in the U.K. next month.
Jóhannsson also recorded several albums, including “Englaborn,” “Viroulegu Foretar,” “Fordlandia” and “Orphee.”
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