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Track Listings
| 1. Þú ert sólin |
| 2. Þú ert jörðin |
| 3. Tunglið |
| 4. Loftið verður skyndilega kalt |
| 5. Kjurrt |
| 6. Gleypa okkur |
| 7. Hægt, kemur ljósið |
| 8. Undan hulu |
| 9. Þau hafa sloppið undanþunga myrkursins |
Product Description
Review
This arc from shadow to light is mirrored across the duration of ...and They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness, providing Arnalds with a clear contextual framework upon which to found his work, while emancipating him from the default melancholia of his past material. Whereas previous efforts have found him struggling to locate his specific USP, mired in the second tier of contemporary ivory workers (some distance behind the likes of Jó ;hann Jó ;hannsson and Max Richter), this set's effortless poise elevates him to the genre's upper echelons.
While this success is partly due to the suite's conceptual foundations and strategy, it also benefits from an expanded instrumental palette. When, on Tunglið, a tumble of drums splinters the plaintive, customary trade-off between ivory and strings, it's as if an immeasurable stretch of black nimbus has parted, recoiling in the wake of a sun's ardent luminescence. Moments such as this seem a world away from the indistinct sketches that characterised so much of 2009's Dyad 1909.
Arnalds is clearly growing in confidence, comfortable enough to permit his phrases to linger, allowing each note to permeate the vacated spaces between. Perhaps this is the influence of Béla Tarr once more, a man renowned for his use of languidly-paced shots (the 145 minutes of Werckmeister Harmonies contains a mere 39). Regardless, Arnalds is set to take his place among the big boys. Not bad for a guy who once sat behind the traps for a group called Fighting S***. --Spencer Grady
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Review
'More accomplished than ever before' (8/10) Drowned In Sound --Drowned In Sound
Cracking ice and freezing winds in Ólafur Arnalds evocative and lyrical score' **** Times --The Times
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Customer Reviews
The melodies are based on thin ideas and slow in developing, if there is such a thing as development: it is more the repeating of a single idea that leads nowhere, it just fades. Above all: the musicians have never met! Olafur played his piano parts in a workshop in Germany, Tony Levin added bass lines at his U.K. kitchen, and the violinists were recorded in an Icelandic studio - all that music is not about. It should be about emotions, interaction and not be a colouring by numbers. Too many pretensions here, the title and artwork being other ones. And Arnalds' recent efforts to perform this music live in established concert halls is as bad an idea as Enya performing at a death metal festival.
Surely there is a market for this; as said, on first hearing it sounds attractive, thus making it excellent, non-obtrusive background music for in waiting rooms, etc. But not for posterity: the more one listens the more boring it gets. Admittedly another function might be that this music may offer a gateway for some to listen to real classical music - those better try the Kronos Quartet. For those who want to explore the real wasteland between pop and classical I recommend Rachel's and the sublime Max Richter.
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