Over the span of just a handful of film scores, Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson expanded our idea of what film music can be, earning Oscar nominations for “Sicario’s” sinister, evil-incarnate soundscape to the relatively upbeat, mind-racing energy that drove the Stephen Hawking biopic “The Theory of Everything.” Now, at age 48, this exciting young virtuoso has died, and though that tragically means a career cut short, expect to hear the echoes of his influence for years to come.When one considers the sheer volume of Hollywood films made each year, it’s astonishing just how small the pool of composers relied upon to supply their soundtracks — which makes it all the more remarkable when a new talent appears on the scene.
In Jóhannsson’s case, most of us took note when director Denis Villeneuve (himself an outsider, hailing from the world of French-language Canadian art cinema) tapped Jóhannsson to write the music for “Prisoners” — although he’d actually
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