Angèle Dubeau IMMERSION

 

IMMERSION

ÓLAFUR ARNALDS some kind of peace

 

SOME KIND OF PEACE

 

ÓLAFUR ARNALDS re:member

For his fourth solo studio record, Ólafur Arnalds has enthusiastically opened his arms (and his beloved pianos) to new technology. Stratus, a piece of software that composer and audio developer Halldór Eldjárn has spent the past two years collaborating with Arnalds to hone, links two self-playing, semi-generative pianos to a central, human-controlled piano. Using algorithms whose complexity will likely make your eyes twitch, the pianos respond to the notes played on the primary piano and then conjure patterns of notes, melodies, and harmonies of their own. This innovation has led to an album of new approaches, new tacks, and new sounds. Whilst Arnalds has utilised this tech to alter his method, he has also opted to incorporate the far-ranging influences, some of which have made appearances in his Trance Frenz and Kiasmos collaborations, in a raw, unfiltered manner which has, inevitably, led to a varied and evocatively emotional release.

Oh… and he also employed Stratus to design the album artwork. Just don’t ask me how.

There is something inherently watery in Ólafur Arnalds’ sounds. That is not to say weak, but dappled and flowing. Of natural rhythms and glinting possibility. It’s also music that is aware of an unruly danger. A fluid threat. And in that lies the trickle of melancholy, of potential fear, that pervades re:member. With every step forward there is hope. But there is also uncertainty, as if the pebbles upon which we tread may slide out, cascade down and send us under the lapping froth. (Jon Bucklan)

ÓLAFUR ARNALDS Eulogy for Evolution 2017 (Remastered 10th Anniversary Edition)

Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds reissues and revives his debut album in form of a special remastered 10th Anniversary edition titled Eulogy For Evolution 2017 — available worldwide via Erased Tapes on August 25th.
Following its initial release in 2007 and coinciding with Ólafur’s 30th birthday, label founder Robert Raths gifted the chance for this record to shine a second time.
Eulogy For Evolution is a journey from birth to death, transporting the listener through life itself. Originally written as a teenager, the record has now been restored with the help of his friends, remixed by Ólafur himself and remastered by Nils Frahm. The cover art was redesigned and enhanced by Torsten Posselt at FELD using the original photographs taken by Stuart Bailes during a trip to Ólafur’s home in Iceland in 2007.
To experience the record in the present day is not only to experience the past, but also the sheer timelessness and relevance of these compositions, and the ambition Ólafur has had from the very beginning. “Fast forward 10 years, our relationships and knowledge in sound have matured, but you can still hear this urgency in Óli’s songs that caught my ears to begin with”, states Robert Raths.
 
Words from Ólafur, June 2017:
“I spent a couple of weeks in some sort of a time machine, opening up and working on 12-year-old recordings. There was noise in the microphones, some channels seemed accidentally muted, but sometimes I found myself admiring what my teenage self was capable of. It was somehow charming. Well, most of it. So I fixed the stuff that wasn’t before sending it off to Nils Frahm for remastering. 
It was an ambitious outing. When I was 18 my uncle passed away from cancer. It was the first time I had experienced the passing of someone close to me, so I dedicated my work to him. Around the same time his first grandchild was born, and was named after him. I was inspired by the joy and positivity he brought, and saw that somehow life was extended after our death. So I set out to create a solid piece of music that would take us through the circle of life. 
This work by a highly emotional teenager has been revived, matured and, I hope you’ll agree, improved by some of my favourite people in this world. I’m grateful to see it get another chance to shine and I hope you will enjoy this journey to the past.”

Ólafur Arnalds / Alice Sara Ott THE CHOPIN PROJECT

Classical music has always been very much about performance and interpretation - about that moment, in concert, when the performer interprets the composer s music in his own way. Then recording technology came along, and in classical it was all about capturing the live performance in the most accurate way. But I believe that when music has been channeled through all the machinery and processes that are part of making a recording, it is no longer all about that moment. It can t be. The act of recording becomes a ghost performer in itself, reflecting on the result in a way that is often unaccounted for or ignored.
While The Beatles dragged pop music along by starting to use the recording technology as a part of the composition and performance, classical music was left to still somehow aim for the impossible. And the idea of what is considered an accurate and true sound became an unbreakable norm in itself.
This norm never made much sense to me. Why not use the technology we have as not only a tool, but a part of the actual interpretation? Why can t the microphones, the room - the sound - also be a performer? Why would all of these factors need to stay invisible behind the norm of a true recording sound? And why would a good classical piano sound naturally have to be the silvery, brilliant concert grand sound that we have on classical recordings today, while we know that the pianos of the 19th century sounded so very different?
All these are norms that I was interested to test. Alice was the perfect partner in this project. Her recording of Chopin s Waltzes has been a true inspiration for me. We spent a week exploring different microphones, pianos and venues all over Reykjavik, trying to find the perfect constellation for each of her interpretations. And then I tried to put them in a new context with my own recompositions, based on themes from Chopin s pieces. I wanted to make a dynamic and modern album with the originals and recompositions melting together to create one arc, one coherent storyline.
Chopin's music has a very special meaning for me. When I was younger I was playing drums in various metal bands and all I wanted to listen to was punk and heavy metal music. But whenever I visited my grandmother, which I did frequently, she would always make me listen to Chopin. If it had been my parents forcing classical music down my throat at that time of my life I probably would have puked on their face. But I guess out of respect for my grandmother I always listened with her and slowly it started to grow on me.
My last moment with my grandmother was on her deathbed, she was just lying there, old and sick, but very happy and proud. And I sat with her and we listened to a Chopin sonata. Then I kissed her goodbye and left. She passed away a few hours later.
At that point I was already studying classical composition and experimenting, releasing and touring with all kinds of classically inspired music. But Chopin always kept this special place in my heart and I wanted to express that by making his music the center of this project. By looking at his music in a different way, through the prism of recording technique in its different facets and through my own compositions, I didn't intend to question the integrity of Chopin's music. I wanted to find my very personal interpretation, like so many other great musicians have done before me. (Ólafur Arnalds)