And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees

The album takes its title from Varmints, a 24-minute film by the Studio AKA animator Marc Craste, based on a book by Helen Ward that Craste illustrated. Jóhannsson wrote the music for the film, and the album runs about fifteen minutes longer than it does. Joe Tangari reviewed it for Pitchfork in March 2010, calling attention to the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, a solo cello in Escape and the strings of Rainwater, which scores a scene of flying jellyfish scattering dandelion seeds over the city. He wrote that it works as a suite without the film.