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Soundscapes at the Barbican: Greg Haines and Ólafur Arnalds

Quite a long-time fan of Ólafur Arnalds, I was pretty excited to get tickets for his 11th March concert at the Barbican Centre with the Britten Sinfonia. Definitely worth the convoluted travel plan (driving to Oxford to get the train - First Great Western seem to think people at the Vale of Evesham/Malvern end of the line don't go out at night...)!

Ólafur Arnalds
Something of a culture clash early on once the sold out crowd had sat down. Greg Haines, last night's support act, came onstage pretty prompt and after a quick hello to the audience, sat down and proceeded to play for 30 minutes straight. He received fabulous applause, but there was a small amount of coughing and fidgeting going on... A great atmosphere with the auditorium completely dark except for Greg's spotlights (cue reminiscences of Frank Horvat and Timber Timbre) - for most of the 30 minutes I was lost in his soundscape. He started with very ambient-minimalist piano sounds and gradually worked up the layers. I so enjoyed being lost in the music that to stop and take a photo would quite have ruined the moment. Definitely on my 'must investigate further' list!


After a very short interval the crowd erupted for Ólafur Arnalds, the Britten Sinfonia, Iskra String Quartet and conductor André de Ridder. Arnalds structured the set in big blocks of sound with only 3 or 4 gaps for talking and more. The assembled musicians pretty much played through his new album For Now I Am Winter, with an encore of 'Lag fyrir ömmu' from Living Room Songs. Part of me thinks there was a track in there from ...And they have escaped the weight of darkness, but if so I don't know which one. As well as musically enthralling, there was a varied light show projected behind the stage based on the movements of singer Arnor Dan Arnason - lots of funky snow...

Almost the final bow..
We listened to For Now I Am Winter for the first time last week and it is a little odd to listen to Ólafur Arnalds tracks with vocals! All of the instrumental tracks performed last night were fantastic, but we are a little undecided on the effectiveness of the vocal tracks. Not to detract from the new album - it is great! 

Overall an excellent evening and a really interesting mix of pop and classical cultures. For anyone who missed this, Ólafur Arnalds has a new London date - 3rd June at St John in Hackney.   
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