Photo: Press
At this powerfully haunting Barbican show, Ólafur Arnalds demonstrated just why he is being called a musical wunderkind, and one of the world’s greatest contemporary composers.
Ólafur Arnalds career-trajectory has been, shall we say, unusual. The onetime heavy metal drummer got his start in classical-electronica by working on intro/outro music for Germany’s extreme metal band Heaven Shall Burn, before turning his attention to composing full time. Solo work, techno collaborations and soundtrack work followed, including placement in Hunger Games and, of course, penning his now wildly popular score for ITV’s Broadchurch.
Now here we are at this headline Barbican concert that has been sold out for months. Like contemporary Nils Frahm, Iceland’s Ólafur Arnalds fuses post-electronica synths and beats with neoclassical, orchestral soundscapes, creating compositions that move through both meditative and intensely dramatic musical atmospheres. His piano playing contains a delicate melancholy, but when loops of slow, bass-leaning beats and layers of strings are added, the music can move away from ambient introspection to overwhelming waves of dense, climatic sound.
Tonight, he is accompanied by a seven-piece ensemble, including strings and horns, plus simple lighting involving some blinding strobes, used sparingly. His own instruments included two pianos, a Juno60 synthesizer and an iPad. Despite the equipment, band and lights, this was, for the most part, a masterclass in minimalism, with the majority of songs carefully retrained – the live orchestral elements were never overbearing, allowing Arnald’s piano parts to remain the rightful focus.
The pieces of music from his BAFTA-winning Broachchurch soundtrack were naturally greeted with the greatest response, with instrumental tracks like main set closer ‘Beth’s Theme’ entrancing the audience with their simple beauty. The best moments from tonight’s performance, however, came whenever guest vocalist Arnór Dan took to the mic with his soaring, evocative voice. Songs from Arnald’s sublime third album For Now I Am Winter, including a hypnotic outing of ‘Old Skin’, were excellent, as was the commanding rendition of the Broadchurch end credits song, ‘So Far’.
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