06 December 2009

Recommendation: Ólafur Arnalds








The past few years have seen the genesis of some really incredible music by emerging minimalist composers, who have continued faintly in the style of artists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley. One such composer is the Brazilian Andrei Machado. His slowly unwinding album Lacuna from 2008 features gentle, atmospheric piano strokes. His more recent release, Étant, is also an incredible listen. 






One of the most phenomenal contemporary minimalist composers of today (according to me) ironically began as a drummer for a hardcore metal band in Iceland. Sometime around 2007, Ólafur Arnalds dropped his drumsticks and instead focused his abilities on composition. In 2009, he produced Found Songs--each day, for seven days, composing a new piece and posting it online for free. One of his listeners put together the following video for the song of day 7, Ljósið:





You can get the album on vinyl for £13 from Erased Tapes.


Enjoy   : ) 

2 comments:

more is jess said...

Thanks for your kind comment on our project!!

I will have to pass these on to my husband. He's a huge fan of modern composers. Speaking of Philip Glass, did you see GLASS: a portrait of Philip in twelve parts? It was a heartbreaking look into the life of a genius.

Julia said...

That video is phenomenal. The music as well. Thank you for sharing!!

 
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