Monday Late Night Music – Ólafur Arnalds

I’d thought I pretty much knew what needed to be known about the great musical wonders Iceland has to offer, á la Sigur Rós. But until this year, I’d somehow completely missed the marvelous work of modern classical composer /multi-instrumentalist, Ólafur Arnalds. A couple months ago, I stumbled upon Arnalds’ latest album, …and they have escaped the weight of darkness, and found it to be completely gorgeous and heart-aching in a wonderful way.

He’s got quite a few good videos scattered across the youtube. I’d like to share 3 of those with you now. The first is the uniquely animated video for the track, ‘Ljósið’, from his Found Songs project in 2009 (which can be downloaded for free or purchased in physical form here): The second video is a live, in-apartment performance of the same piece. And the third is another beautifully animated video for the track, ‘Hægt, kemur ljósið’, from his latest album (notice that the last minute or so of this last piece nicely echoes the previous one). Enjoy!