“Hi there, I’m glad you found me. My name is Ólafur Arnalds and I like to make music.”
These are the words that greet visitors to Ólafur Arnalds’ home page, the BAFTA-winning, multi-instrumentalist and producer from Iceland. Arnalds mixes strings and piano with loops and edgy beats crossing-over from ambient/electronic to pop, in his love for minimalist sound.
Born in 1986 in Mosfellsbær, Arnalds has been active since the early 2000s and was a drummer in hardcore/metal bands Fighting Shit and Celestine, as well as others.
In 2007, his first solo album Eulogy for Evolution was released, followed by the EP Variations of Static in 2008.
2012 was a big year for the artist, as he announced a new partnership with the Universal Music label Mercury Classics. That year also saw four releases: his score for Sam Levinson’s film Another Happy Day; an EP entitled Two Songs For Dance; the second EP from his experimental techno project Kiasmos and another EP entitled Stare with German pianist Nils Frahm.
In the same year, his song Allt varð hljótt was used in the score and soundtrack for the film The Hunger Games.
The project Kiasmos was formed when Arnalds joined forces with Janus Rasmussen in 2009. The minimalist, experimental techno duo released their album Kiasmos in 2014.
Arnalds released his third studio album entitled For Now I Am Winter in early 2013. Four tracks featured vocals from Arnór Dan of the Icelandic band Agent Fresco – the first time Ólafur had incorporated vocals into any of his released work.
He composed the score and end-credits track for the 2013 ITV series Broadchurch (again featuring the vocals of Arnór Dan), for which he won the 2014 BAFTA TV Craft Award for Best Original Music.
CLOSER spoke to the artist ahead of his Macau performance.
When did you understand that music is what you wanted to dedicate your life to?
I think I have always had that goal in some way or another. When I was a kid I just wanted to be a drummer, then later a producer or an engineer.
You have said that music is not a one way street. Where do you draw most of your inspiration from?
Most of my influences come from other people, my collaborators – both in the field of music and other artforms. I get very inspired by the film directors I get to work with, for example.
You have been a drummer in hardcore/metal bands. Is there any genre of music you don’t identify with?
Not any particular genre no… If the music is good then it’s good. Although I probably wouldn’t sit at home on a normal day and put on some smooth jazz…
What do you listen to when not creating your own music?
A lot of pop and electronica, hip hop and jazz.
What is it about minimal, experimental music that appeals to you so much?
I love saying a lot with very few expressions. It’s a much bigger challenge and much more fascinating to me. I try to say as much as I can with as few notes as I can.
You have worked a lot in television and film and won a BAFTA for the BBC detective series Broadchurch. How much do awards mean to you?
As much as I’d like to say that I don’t care, it is very important to me. I worked so hard on that show, and to know that my colleagues in the industry liked it enough to give me such a prestigeous award for it is a huge relief and quite an honour.
The Chopin Project is a collaboration with German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott with the themes of Chopin in a new context, with your own recompositions. How did this project come about?
I have always been a big fan of Chopin, but in the last few years I found myself listening less to him because I felt I had already heard all the recordings. All of the recordings I could find really sounded quite the same and no one was making real use of all the technology we have today or the great medium that the album is. So I wanted to use the methods and techniques I use in my own music to bring Chopin back into the modern world and perhaps to make his music more relatable.
You are very involved with the artwork your fans create, inspired by your music. What have you learned about your own work, if anything, based on what you see submitted?
It’s always interesting to see how fans interpret my music – I think the most important thing I have learned is that each person has their own interpretation. The music can’t really mean anything in particular, and that is the real beauty.
In recent years, Icelandic music has become bigger or at least more noticeable on the international stage. Is there a reason for that, and are there any particular characteristics you can find in Icelandic music that make it different from others?
I think people just don’t really care about fitting in some boxes or genres. There is very much of a ‘do what you want’ mentality there… No pressure from labels or the music business.
Have you performed in Macau or China before?
I have performed in China a few times but never in Macau.
What can we expect from this concert you’re bringing to Macau?
It’s a very minimal show with only two strings, piano and electronics. We will be playing a nice mix from my whole catalogue.
Thursday – October 29
8pm
Macao Cultural Centre – Small Auditorium
MOP300, 250