Ólafur Arnalds

There we were, seated in a full, sold-out, BARTS concert hall in Barcelona (around 1000 persons), at an early hour (19.30!), thanks to the cleverness of Cooncert guys, who are making possible to bring to our city artists “by request”. And, as starter, we are playing the game that Ólafur Arnalds uses to break the ice (I guess an Icelandic person has many tricks for that). He asks the audience to sing a C-tuned vowel that is then processed and used as a background drone in his typical opening number: “Þú ert sólin”. Indeed, the trick works its magic and, all of a sudden, we connect with the artist moods and enter into a dreamy, blurry, blissful state. I nevertheless experience, for a short while, some flashbulb memories of Wim Mertens’ first concerts in Barcelona, almost 30 years ago. The “deja-vu” sensation is justified: in front of us, we have a young, blond-hair, well-tempered pianist (no pun intended!), weaving a fabric of minimalist music that transports to emotional landscapes, proving by experience that “there are many ways to feel sad, not just about love” as Arnalds said elsewhere. The concert started to flow with the help of a string quartet, computer support to play loops and process live sound and video, and some occasional touch of trombone. Arnald’s sparse piano playing style makes possible, at times, a turn-taking game between the keyboard and the tablet. This way, subtle reverberation soon proves to be one of the touchstones in Arnalds’ sound: as “silences” have a capital role in many of his tracks, what happens between the notes is never left untouched as true silence. Shades, shimmering and grain are nuances to be appreciated when the instruments seem to be leaving room to the room resonances. Additional intriguing “deja-vu” experiences are triggered by several tracks. The majestic “Only the Winds”, for example, has Sigur-Rossian development and melodic content; though timbrically it belongs to a different planet (piano and strings play here the role of guitars and a voice). In fact this composition sounds like a wink to his compatriots or, more specifically, as a quotation of Popplagið (8th track from Sigur Ros’ “()”). This blending of genres and artists appears again in one of the tracks (was it “Brostjor”?) to be found in “Dyad 1909”. The track comes from a choreography soundtrack inspired by Shackleton’s expedition to Antarctica and it mingles power and frailty, fire and snow. Can you conjure up in your mind a fusion between bits of industrial noisy percussion and delicate strings and piano? I can’t believe that the beats and rhythm are making me think of Esplendor Geometrico!!! The Antarctic inspiration is also present in “3326”, a virtuosistic violin piece that, because it is basically a “solo”, breaks the flowing atmosphere of the concert but helps to make the transition to its second part, mostly devoted to “For Now I Am Winter”, the most recent release by Arnalds. If you were told that Arnór Dan, a falsetto singer that then became the focus of the night, is the regular front man of an Icelandic metal band (Agent Fresco), you could probably not believe that, as he delivered the repertoire with intense but gentle velvet tones. His voice never sounded strained or harsh, and blended well with the sometimes somber and sometimes desolate tones of the songs. Some projections contributed to the winterish atmosphere, playing with the shadow of the singer and some “snowyfication” of those images. We all knew that the concert could not be long. Arnalds warned us from the beginning that he had to catch a plane at 23h to return on time to his recording discipline. And the clock was ticking and the bells were tolling for the farewell moment. Out of sight, from the right side of the scenario, the progressively fading violin notes of “Lag fyrir ömmu” called for all our attention. They enclosed a message to enhance our sonic awareness, give room to silence, and keep our noisy appliances off more often. By the end of the piece, the notes were barely audible and we had to wait until Arnalds made a gesture indicating that the end had already been reached long ago. We could have been there for eons, if only to eternally keep that fleeting illusion of Heaven.