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 ...
The varied musings of a music maniac...