The multiple award-winning artist, composer and producer Ólafur Arnalds returns to Rome to present his latest monumental album Some Kind of Peace. An intimate and highly emotional live performance that delineates a space for sharing one’s vulnerabilities through music, letting one’s guard down and abandoning oneself to unexpected harmonies and surprising melodic sequences- all built with the revolutionary self-playing Stratus pianos, capable of rendering every Arnalds performance unique. This is an introspective journey into the artistic career of the great Icelandic musician and into his poetic universe, as well as an invitation to openness and comfort in these difficult times.
Bio
Ólafur Arnalds, pianist, and composer, was born in Mosfellsbær (Iceland) in 1986 and is considered by critics a perfect mix of classicism and contemporaneity: his compositions mix the sound of electronic music with the ones of great orchestral compositions. Arnalds’ career began in 2007 with his first solo album Eulogy for Evolution, followed in 2008 by the EP Variations of Static. Between 2009 and 2011 Arnalds realized two projects: Found Songs and Living Room Songs.In 2013, however, Arnalds’ name began to be known thanks to the album For Now I Am Winter. The single “A Sutter” is used in the film Taken 3 with Liam Neeson, and, together with “For Now I Am Winter” and “Carry Me Anew” is also included in the film Mia Madre by the famous Italian director Nanni Moretti. That same year, Ólafur began editing the soundtrack for the English TV Series Broadchurch, which won the BAFTA Award in 2014. In 2018 Arnalds published Re:member, an experimental album for which – together with his friend and sound designer Halldór Eldjárn and Icelandic producer Bngrboy – he uses an innovative software that transforms the piano into a completely new instrument. The software, generated by the interaction between three pianos (one struck by hand, the other two by artificial intelligence) can create wonderful sequences in a mix of aerated arcs’ harmonies that lead to brilliant electronic endings.In 2019 Ólafur Arnalds opens the eighth edition of Piano City Milano Festival and performs in the Main Stage of GAM – Galleria di Arte Moderna with an imaginative performance on three pianos (one gran coda and two vertical ones) and a program of songs that offers the opportunity to portray the natural landscapes of his land together with the suggestions given by the Northern skies. His latest album is Some Kind of Piece (2020), revealing Ólafur’s personal and creative journey, once again made of simple and delicate piano motifs and strings, that blend with environmental electronics and a soft voice.
Official Link
Ólafur Arnalds
