I knew for quite some time that I would be attending this concert, but I wasn't entirely sure if I'll end up writing my thoughts about it afterwards, especially during this period when I've been actively working on the "Jeromes Dream" review (which made me quite exhausted) and the huge showcase/interview that I'll be posting next week. However, the performance was such that it would be a complete loss not to host here.
Ólafur Arnalds, an Icelandic multi-instrumentalist, needs no introduction, simply because he has been sprouting his roots throughout various corners of the music world. He played drums in “Fighting Shit” and “Celestine”, Icelandic hardcore and post-metal bands respectively, and has contributed various material for “Heaven Shall Burn”. Both bands being quite superb, I might add. He is also part of an experimental techno duo along with Janus Rasmussen of “Bloodgroup”, their joint project called “Kiasmos” which I’m really enjoying lately. During the years he has touched many genres with his solo project, ranging from post-rock, experimental ambient and neoclassicism. Along the way, he has worked with many notable artists, such as “Sigur Rós” and Nils Frahm, to name a few, and has also contributed vastly in the soundtrack world where he eventually won the BAFTA Best Original Music award for the show “Broadchurch” in 2014.
He is also considered a music pioneer along with Icelandic audio developer Halldor Eldjarn, with whom he worked for two years to develop a custom-designed software called “Stratus”. Essentially, a musical system focused on a central piano which, while being played, triggers two different notes on two other self-playing pianos, creating unbelievable melodies and harmonies.
This is all just a brief, condensed background, but it boils down to Ólafur being an exceptionally talented artist making some truly wonderful music, a prodigy only Iceland is capable of raising.
The event took place at “Sava Centar” in Belgrade on 20th of November 2019. It’s a really old place, but one with a rather cult-like status for grandiose events like this and it has been a place of some fond memories for me. The most recent event which I attended here was the “Dead Can Dance” concert a few months back and I was blown away by how exquisite the acoustics of the concert hall were. Truth be told, I was a little skeptical for that gig because the venue is so old and with a bit of a rusty appearance, but the whole event just pushed all those doubts aside and I was actually quite happy that Ólafur will have his performance there. As he mentioned when addressing the crowd during the opening of the show, this was their 142nd (out of 143) concert on the “Re:member” tour which has been spanning for 18 months.
To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect from the concert and I somewhat went blind into it, as I haven’t really listened to his music all that much. I mostly knew some of his background and have heard a few songs here and there, so in my mind it would be just an enjoyable evening.
Right from the get go, the concert was a sight to behold. Ólafur came out alone and sat at his piano, a single beam of light high from above focusing on him. Soon enough, he was joined by five other band members, a cellist, a drummer and three violinists, all walking into the darkness and taking their positions. Slowly, each of them began playing, one by one, each note making another ray of light coming down and illuminating them.
Immediately I have to talk about the lights which were such a key element to the entire performance, as if they were the final member on stage making this group a septet. I have literally never attended an event where the lighting was utilized in such an astounding way. Not only was it beautiful aesthetically, but there was a real artistic merit to it, being perfectly synchronized with the music, constantly adapting to almost every created tone. It played such a pivotal part in establishing and enhancing the atmosphere that you cannot take it away from the music.
The music itself was divine. “Þú ert jörðin”, “re:member”, “Verses”, “Ypsilon”, “Ekki Hugsa” and “Near Light” are just some of the songs which spread through the concert hall that evening. The audience was grasped and taken on a hundred minute otherworldly journey. Collectively, we even actively participated in the said journey, when Ólafur asked the crowd to sing so that he can record it and add it to a song. For the most part, everyone in the crowd was stunned by the spectacle and there would always be dead silence near the end of a given song, everybody patiently waiting for the very last tone to go mute so that we could all burst into applause and cheer. There were moments where the piano would be so very quiet, almost as if it was not playing at all, and you could sense the electricity in the air as hundreds of people sit on the edges of their seats, so deeply focused and absorbing the moment.
There’s a pure lack of words when trying to describe music like this. It was so mesmerizing to literally see and hear all these beautifully weaved melodies playing with and rearranging your momentary emotions. So many perfectly clear, gentle, somber, melancholic, uplifting and epic tones, but all together so very powerful and moving. You simply can’t sum that up in writing. I like to explain this to myself in a way that such music is created by not only genuinely talented individuals, but by those who are also able to tap into something deep down in their soul, a thing so pure and primordial, and transfer it into music.
The last, but absolutely not the least, song which Ólafur performed alone during an encore was “Lag fyrir ömmu”, which he explained was a song he dedicated to his late grandmother. So pure and wonderful, as he has also been while previously addressing the audience, the last tones echoing that evening in Belgrade were deeply moving.
In the end, this was an evening blessed with truly magical music. It is one of those events which you experience and then you go home with your soul feeling warm and comfortable. It’s an experience which doesn’t hit you hard, but instead it lingers on you for the days to come and makes you smile because somewhere in the back of your mind you still hear some of those beautiful piano melodies playing. It doesn’t blow your mind, but it does take your breath away.
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