Fragile and emotional neoclassical are perhaps the best terms to describe Ólafur Arnalds music, a man who over the past 5 years by combining classical instrumentation with an ambient aesthetic has established himself as one of the most interesting musicians to emerge from Iceland’s vibrant music scene. His sorrowful neoclassical pieces evoked the stark minimalism of Sigur Rós, combined with the simple ambience explored by Brian Eno. Through these influences and others, Arnalds has created a simple, short-form take on modern classical music that has enough crossover appeal to be enjoyed by fans of post-rock, ambient, and even pop music genres – but Arnalds by mixing strings and piano with loops, ambiance, electronics and beats is sculpting his own epic, string-laden compositions.
Only 26 years of age, Arnalds returns to Hong Kong (after a sold out show in 2010) hard on the heels of his well-liked soundtrack to Broadchurch and in support of his ‘major label’ debut For Now I Am Winter which sees Arnalds adding an impressive amount of variety into what is already a well-established formula, what will be interesting is how the vocal embellishments to some of the new album’s tracks come across live?
To find out more have a listen https://soundcloud.com/olafur-arnalds
What: Ólafur Arnalds
When: 8pm, 16 September, 2013
Where: Grappa’s Cellar, Basement Jardine House, 1 Connaught Place, Hong Kong
How Much: $300 from http://olafurarnalds.ticketflap.com
