Clapboard homes in Fordlândia, circa 1930

Last night, Evening Music host David Garland brought my attention to Fordlândia, a new work by Johann Johannsson. The Icelandic composer/producer explores the utpopian town that Henry Ford built in Brazil in the late 1920s. Determined to control a major stake on rubber, which he needed for tires for his endless parade of vehicles, Ford created a little slice of America in the Amazon, replete with hamburger lunches, square-dance parties, and prohibition laws. The project turned out to be a big ol’ wreck: the rubber saplings didn’t grow (but mosquitos did) and machete-wielding local workers revolted, chasing managers from their white clapboard houses. Just when Ford thought he’d nailed it, scientists perfected super-economical synthetic rubber. But there’s one good thing to show for it—a stupendous album that invokes the triumph of nature over the machine.