Ólafur Arnalds

stickyfiddle

In a new twist to the hilarity that is the "are fx cheating?" saga, there's this guy. 

I first got introduced to him by a chap in Iceland at the beginning of the year and he's a complete genius. Well worth watching the full NPR video, but in particular the last song (from 10:10 in the video below).

stickyfiddle

This one's also stunning. Music starts around 3:35

octatonic

That is immensely great.

Hadn't heard of him before but that is such an interesting idea and very well executed too.

Sporky

If you like him, Nils Frahm is also worth a go. This takes a little while to get going but it's worth it. 

Fretwired

Liked Ólafur Arnalds since I heard his album Eulogy for evolution was released around 2008. It sold out and went out of print but was re-released in 2017. Worth a listen - it's a minor masterpiece. He also wrote the music for the TV series Broadchurch. I have 6 or 7 of his CDs. Found songs is accessible and worth a listen.

As @Sporky says Nils Frahm is also worth checking out. He's made some albums with Ólafur Arnalds - 'an evening with' is a live album of Nordic electronica and is very good whilst 'Stare' is more of an ambient album with only three tracks. If you want to check out Nils on his own then the album 'Solo' is a good place to start.

Max Richter is also worth checking out - avoid most of his film sound tracks. His album 'Sleep' is worth checking out. It comes in two formats - the full recording which is 8 hours long or a compilation at a standard hour. Worth a listen.

stickyfiddle

Cheers all. Will look up the Frahm chap.

From Arnalds I like Island Songs the most, but haven't got through everything of his yet. 

Grunfeld

Fretwired said:

Max Richter... "Sleep"...  a compilation at a standard hour. Worth a listen.

Thank you.  That's a good recommendation, I played it yesterday.  

It's clearly not instant gratification but it's probably worth two marshmallows on further listening.

That was my thought anyway.

Sporky

For Max I like the Blue Notebooks best. 

ArchtopDave

I came across Nils Frahm earlier this year, when he was on tour. Superb gig.
Got chatting to a couple of people at the gig, who were long term fans of his music. They recommended his CD "Felt", which I bought along with his latest one. "Felt" is well worth it. They also recommended his collaboration with Arnalds, though I have yet to buy it.

ewal

Olafur is a class musician - this from the Island Songs series is a complete spine-tingler...

stickyfiddle

@ewal - yup, absolutely gorgeous. I like the 2nd OM&M album but would very much like her to do more with Arnalds. I could pretty much listen to this one forever

ewal

stickyfiddle said:

@ewal - yup, absolutely gorgeous. I like the 2nd OM&M album but would very much like her to do more with Arnalds. I could pretty much listen to this one forever

In a vicarious showing off sort of way, I have to at this point mention that my mate Richie (drummer in my band) is the regular live sound guy for OM&M. I keep on asking him to get us a gig in Iceland!

stickyfiddle

Nice! We saw them on a beach in Dubai a few years ago, supporting the Killers. They were great, those it was *utterly* the wrong venue for them. 

Fretwired

Nils Frahm's piano .. if you like the sound Native Instruments have created a virtual instrument ....

DiscoStu

Ólafur has a haunting yet relaxing sound and his bleep bloop pianos remind me of the iPhone music app 'Bloom' which was written by Brian Eno. Lovely stuff. 
Ólafur explains more about his pianos here