Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.09.2017, Qupperneq 35

TRACK BY TRACK
Ólafur Arnalds
- ‘Eulogy For
Evolution 2017’
Words: Ólafur Arnalds
Eulogy For Evolution 2017
Out now via Erased Tapes. Special
thanks to drownedinsound.com.

Following its initial release in
2007 and coinciding with his 30th
birthday, Icelandic composer
Ólafur Arnalds has reissued and
revived his debut album in the
form of a special remastered 10th
Anniversary edition titled ‘Eulogy
For Evolution 2017.’ "I spent a couple
of weeks in some sort of a time
machine, opening up and working
on twelve-year-old recordings,”
says Ólafur. “There was noise in the
microphones, but I found myself
admiring what my teenage self was
capable of."
0040
For the music theory geeks, one
could see this as an exercise in
modulation by a 16-year-old who
just heard the term for the first
time. But I believe what I was
thinking was this constant feeling
of never really knowing where
you are until finally it falls into
place, things become settled,
and life begins. The right-hand
melody reappears several times
throughout the album.
0048 / 0729
So, first of all, I think the title of
this one is a typo… I think it was
supposed to be 0448/0729 but it
got lost somewhere in the world of
early metadata. But whatever. What
a weird song this is. Why is there a
melodica in this song? Makes no
sense.
0952
OK, so this song is important. Most
of the songs I wrote in the years
before the album was released,
but this song I added in the studio.
I think it shows a big change in
my taste and composing style,
and a hint of what was to come on
following releases, where I made
the rather abrupt shift into more
minimalist compositions.
1440
A personal favorite and one of
the earliest compositions for the
album. Fun fact: the major part
that starts around the 4-minute
mark was literally composed by me
randomly hitting all the black keys
with my right hand.
1953
I don’t know what’s happening here
but I like it. I also like how this track-
by-track feature is turning into a
review of my own album.
3055
Another song that mostly got
created in the studio. I went into
the studio with a composition only
written for one piano and a string
quartet but walked out of the
studio with a hard drive full of drum
parts, guitars, several new piano
melodies, electronic ambiances…
Since then I strongly believe
that the best songs get created
spontaneously.
3326
I wrote this on the midi sequencer
in Pro Tools 5.3—yes, really—and
then handed it off to a violinist
to turn it into actual music. The
wonderful thing about it is that
since not much of the expression
was written into the DNA of the
song, it can change a lot depending
on who is playing it and how they
choose to express it. The violinist
on this recording is Gréta Salóme
(fun fact: she has competed twice
for Iceland in Eurovision Song
Contest with her epic string-laden
pop-rock songs).
3704 / 3837
This is where things turn slightly
weird. I was still a drummer in a
thrash punk band at this time and
felt it was nice to include that
element on the album. There was
also this big idea about the album
being about the circle of life and
death. I guess this is death then.
35The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2017
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