bless your sweet soul for creating and sharing such a gift

This is a pretty great rendition. BTW damn fine work on the music in The Leftovers.

Drawer 1

The title track from For Now I am Winter. 
Buy the album:
Amazon: smarturl.it/OAamazon
iTunes: smarturl.it/OAiTunes

NEW TOUR DATES: www.olafurarnalds.com/tour-dates

For Now I Am Winter

For Now I Am Winter (feat. Arnór Dan)

Summer Soaring (for string quintet)

In the Information Age data is an object that can be used to create multiple realities, each vying for dominance.  Some data points are ignored and some amplified, and in this way narratives are developed and reinforced.  Today’s #MusicalMinute alludes to a lot of these ideas but the results can sound confusing.  What do you think?

17 Aug 25 Clattering Chatter

You can PRE-ORDER Living Room Songs on CD/LP/Download or Special Edition CD&amp;DVD here: 
http://www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP037

ABOUT LIVING ROOM SONGS:

Icelandic contemporary composer Ólafur Arnalds created and released a new song, one per day for one for one whole week during the month of October 2011. The songs were recorded and filmed live in the living room of his Reykjavik apartment and released instantly for free as streamed videos and mp3 downloads.

Thousands of fans followed this exciting project online at: livingroomsongs.olafurarnalds.com

Living Room Songs will now also be released on CD, Vinyl, Ltd. Special Edition CD &amp; DVD and as High Quality Downloads on December 5th via Erased Tapes.


Following in the spirit of Ólafur Arnalds’ critically acclaimed Found Songs (2009) now comes Living Room Songs. This time Ólafur takes the idea further and invites the audience into the comfort of his living room, where the songs were recorded live and the whole process filmed. The songs were instantly released in form of a free mp3 download and video stream- straight from Ólafur's Reykjavik apartment.

IN HIS OWN WORDS: ‘One night I was just playing my piano here in this apartment and I was writing a new song and I didn't have my phone on me which I usually use to record ideas. So I actually took out my MacBook and I didn't want to open like a proper recording program, so I just opened Photo Booth and recorded a video of myself playing the song so that I would remember the song. And I really liked the atmosphere of that video and that's when I thought I should do a series of songs in my living room...’             – Ólafur Arnalds


Born in the suburban Icelandic town of Mosfellsbær, a few kilometers outside of Reykjavík, the 24-year old composer has always enjoyed pushing boundaries with both his studio work and his live-shows. Through relentless touring and determination this young artist has steadily gained recognition worldwide since his 2007 debut Eulogy for Evolution. Ólafur Arnalds’ second full-length album ...and they have escaped the weight of darkness, continues his mission to lure an indie-generation of pop and rock fans into an emotive world of beguiling electronic chamber music and delicate classical arrangements. Ólafur is currently touring with Ryuichi Sakamoto on his Trio Tour throughout Europe.

'The indie kid who knows the score’ – Guardian’s Observer

'Timeless and sublime’ **** – Uncut

'An artist of immense maturity' (9/10) – Drowned In Sound

'Hotwired to the soul. ...will reduce you to wordless tears'  – The Quietus


 
TRACK LISTING: 

I. Fyrsta 
II. Near Light 
III. Film Credits 
IV. Tomorrow's Song 
V. Ágúst 
VI. Lag Fyrir Ömmu 
VII. This Place Is A Shelter


Near Light

Ólafur Arnalds - Near Light

You can PRE-ORDER Living Room Songs on CD/LP/Download or Special Edition CD&amp;DVD here: 
http://www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP037

ABOUT LIVING ROOM SONGS:

Icelandic contemporary composer Ólafur Arnalds created and released a new song, one per day for one for one whole week during the month of October 2011. The songs were recorded and filmed live in the living room of his Reykjavik apartment and released instantly for free as streamed videos and mp3 downloads.

Thousands of fans followed this exciting project online at: livingroomsongs.olafurarnalds.com

Living Room Songs will now also be released on CD, Vinyl, Ltd. Special Edition CD &amp; DVD and as High Quality Downloads on December 5th via Erased Tapes.

Following in the spirit of Ólafur Arnalds’ critically acclaimed Found Songs (2009) now comes Living Room Songs. This time Ólafur takes the idea further and invites the audience into the comfort of his living room, where the songs were recorded live and the whole process filmed. The songs were instantly released in form of a free mp3 download and video stream- straight from Ólafur's Reykjavik apartment.

IN HIS OWN WORDS: ‘One night I was just playing my piano here in this apartment and I was writing a new song and I didn't have my phone on me which I usually use to record ideas. So I actually took out my MacBook and I didn't want to open like a proper recording program, so I just opened Photo Booth and recorded a video of myself playing the song so that I would remember the song. And I really liked the atmosphere of that video and that's when I thought I should do a series of songs in my living room...’ – Ólafur Arnalds

Born in the suburban Icelandic town of Mosfellsbær, a few kilometers outside of Reykjavík, the 24-year old composer has always enjoyed pushing boundaries with both his studio work and his live-shows. Through relentless touring and determination this young artist has steadily gained recognition worldwide since his 2007 debut Eulogy for Evolution. Ólafur Arnalds’ second full-length album ...and they have escaped the weight of darkness, continues his mission to lure an indie-generation of pop and rock fans into an emotive world of beguiling electronic chamber music and delicate classical arrangements. Ólafur is currently touring with Ryuichi Sakamoto on his Trio Tour throughout Europe.

'The indie kid who knows the score’ – Guardian’s Observer

'Timeless and sublime’ **** – Uncut

'An artist of immense maturity' (9/10) – Drowned In Sound

'Hotwired to the soul. ...will reduce you to wordless tears' – The Quietus


TRACK LISTING:

I. Fyrsta 
II. Near Light 
III. Film Credits 
IV. Tomorrow's Song 
V. Ágúst 
VI. Lag Fyrir Ömmu 
VII. This Place Is A Shelter

Living Room Songs

Lag Fyrir Ömmu

Buy 10"/CD/DL

Ólafur Arnalds - Lag Fyrir Ömmu

ÓLAFUR ARNALDS & NILS FRAHM - 'a2' from their forthcoming collaborative EP 'STARE'.

ORDER the Ltd. Edition 10" Vinyl/Download HERE and receive an Erased Tapes 5th Anniversary sticker with it:
http://www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP042

'A hazy slow-builder that sits nicely equidistant between Arnalds’ solo work and his excellent Kiasmos project' – The Line Of Best Fit

CONTENT

Erased Tapes label mates Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm record and mix their first collaborative record between Reyjkjavík and Berlin as a surprise release for label founder Robert Raths.

The ambient/electronic work ‘Stare’ is a true family effort from Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm with Anne Müller joining in on cello and all graphics by close label-friend and now in-house designer Torsten Posselt of Feld Studios.

This release will be strictly limited and exclusively available on Record Store Day 2012, April 21st. Coinciding with the 5th Anniversary of Erased Tapes, it’s also available from the official Erased Tapes online store and sure to become a must-have for fans of the label and these two artists.


CONTEXT

Words by Nils Frahm: 
‘I heard ‘Eulogy For Evolution’ for the first time 6 years ago and I was totally captivated. Impossible to know back then that I was supposed to meet Ólafur many years later as my label mate. Later when he took me along a tour of his we also noted that we kind of like hanging out together, doing important things like cover versions of long forgotten songs or eating veggie pizza. Also he would join my live set for a jam and I would return the favour by playing along with his set. 

All in all, I fell for Óli and after one memorable jam session we had in Berlin at Roter Salon in 2011, he finally proposed the idea to visit me in my studio in Berlin to work on 'some music'. I was happy and delighted about that idea, so we got together in April 2011 and after having a big pizza, I plugged in some old analogue synths and we played for four days until late in the night. Also queen Anne Müller stopped by after a show with Agnes Obel to record some cello at 5 am in the morning for ‘b1’. Making music together with people is lovely! 
 
The time I spent with Óli in Berlin made me very happy and the music wasn't like anything I have heard before. It was all very reduced and minimal and I felt like I couldn't have done this alone. So we decided to do another 4-day jam at Óli´s E7 studio in Reykjavik. So I flew there in the end of October to repeat the trick and record some out of this world ambient music. It didn't take us too long to write ‘a1’ and ‘a2’.  I can’t wait for the follow up!’

Words by Olafur Arnalds:
 ‘After having toured together and having had many inspiring late night conversations, I decided to visit Nils in his Durton Studio in Berlin for a weekend. We didn't have anything specific in mind, we just wanted to hang out, jam and eat some falafel. That's what we did, but somehow we also made 25 minutes of ambient bliss that weekend. 

After that we quickly decided we had to do the same in my studio in Iceland. Just hang out for a weekend and possibly make some music. So the album became kind of an Iceland vs. Berlin thing. I think you can hear it very well in the sound (side a vs. side b) and that is the most interesting thing about this record for me: that subtle but significant different in the characteristics of the music two people made in Iceland against what the same two people made in Germany. 

I'm not sure why we decided to keep it secret, it just happened. But it sure was fun! I remember a party at Robert's (Erased Tapes founder) flat in Berlin, where me and Nils stood in the corner the whole night whispering about the project. We then delivered the fully mastered record with finished artwork to Robert around the 5th anniversary of the label. It would have been nice to be there to see his face…"

The live video of Nils and Ólafur’s spontaneous improv live set in Berlin last summer won them many fans since, including UK electronic music producer Max Cooper who is now remixing two of his “absolute favourite artists”. Nils and Ólafur will be touring together throughout Europe this spring.

You can watch it here: http://vimeo.com/28631568
 


LABEL: ERASED TAPES RECORDS    UK RELEASE DATE: APRIL 21, 2012
CAT.NO: ERATP042 EP/DL   EAN: 4050486068137

TRACK LISTING:  1. a1  2. a2  3. b1

OFFICIAL WEBSITES:   OLAFURARNALDS.COM   DURTONSTUDIO.COM   ERASEDTAPES.COM 

Stare

Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm - a2

For more information visit: http://www.klassikakzente.de/recomposed/home 

Some works are so familiar that it is almost impossible to hear them afresh, but that is what Max Richter has achieved with Vivaldi “Recomposed”. This is no mere arrangement; instead Richter has absorbed Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons into his own musical bloodstream. At first Richter followed the example of other works in the “Recomposed” series, which re-mix existing recordings, but, he says, “I wanted to open up the score on a note-by-note level, and working with an existing recording was like digging a mineshaft through an incredibly rich seam, discovering diamonds and not being able to pull them out. That became frustrating. I wanted to get inside the score at the level of the notes and in essence re-write it, re-composing it in a literal way.”Richter calculates that, in the process, he has discarded around three-quarters of Vivaldi’s original. He opens with what he describes as “a dubby cloud which I’ve called Spring 0. It functions as a sort of prelude, setting up an electronic, ambient space for the first Spring movement to step into. I’ve used electronics in several movements, subtle, almost inaudible things to do withthe bass, but I wanted certain moments to connect to the whole electronic universe that is so much part of our musical language today.” Other resonances are no less unexpected: Richter describes part of the first movement of his Summer as “heavy music for the orchestra. It’s relentless pulsed music, which is a quality that contemporary dance music has; and perhaps I was also thinking about John Bonham’s drumming. Then, in the second movement of Autumn I asked the harpsichordist Raphael Alpermann to play in what is a rather old-fashioned way, very regularly, rather like a ticking clock. That was partly because I didn’t want the harpsichord part to be attention-seeking, but also because that style connects to various pop records from the 1970s where the harpsichord or Clavinet was featured, including various Beach Boys albums and the Beatles’ Abbey Road.” Clearly, Richter has brought his own frame of reference to the project. As he says, “Vivaldi’s music is made of regular patterns, and that connects with post-minimalism, which is one strand in the music that I write. That felt like a natural link, but even so it was surprisingly difficult to navigate my way through it. At every point I had to work out how much is Vivaldi and how much is me. It was difficult but also rewarding because the raw material is so fascinating.”Just as Richter’s Seasons plays tricks with the way we hear Vivaldi’s original, so it also asks questions of the soloist, Daniel Hope. “Violinists have Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons hardwired in their brain. Daniel is likely to play the original I don’t know how many times in a year, and for him to have my parallel text going on in another part of his brain is a challenge. I think he did a wonderful job. He brought to it a deep engagement with the original, but he was fully prepared to cut this new swathe through the text.”


Eine Klassik für Sich 2012

Richter: Recomposed By Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons: Summer 3 (2012)

Download

Max Richter trained in composition and piano at Edinburgh University, at the Royal Academy of Music, and with Luciano Berio in Florence.

On completing his studies, Max co-founded the iconoclastic classical ensemble Piano Circus, where he stayed for ten years, commissioning and performing works by Arvo Pärt, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe and Steve Reich.

In the late 90s he worked with a number of electronic artists, notably Future Sound of London on their album 'Dead Cities". He subsequently collaborated with FSOL over a period of two years, also contributing to the albums "The Isness" and "The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness". Max also collaborated with Mercury Prize winner Roni Size, on "In the Mode".

In June 2002, Max released his debut solo album, "memoryhouse", recorded with The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. This was followed in March 2004 by FatCat's release of "The Blue Notebooks", with featured readings by Tilda Swinton.

In 2005 Max produced Vashti Bunyan's outstanding comeback album "Lookaftering".

2006 saw the release of "Songs From Before" based on Haruki Murakami texts read by Robert Wyatt. That same year, Max began performing "from The Art of Mirrors", an evolving score to previously unseen Super 8mm films of Derek Jarman.

Max's more recent work continues to stretch the notions of what Classical music is.  ‘24 Postcards In Full Colour’, released in August 2008, is an experimental work made up of 24 composed ringtones.

Max works widely in film music, installation and the theatre, most recently on INFRA, made with Wayne MacGregor and Julian Opie for The Royal Ballet, London. The Ballet was the subject of a BBC 'making of' documentary.

Max was named 2008 European Composer Of The Year for his score to Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir, for which he was also nominated for the Prix France Musique.

Richter: Recomposed By Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons: Summer 3 (2012)

max richter

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