Hey Apple, if you’re on the hunt for your next promotional spokesperson, you could do a lot worse than Ólafur Arnalds. Sitting at a grand piano with a coffee table to his right, the diminutive Icelandic musician has enough iProducts within reach that the stage could double as a Genius Bar.
Okay, there’s really just an iPad, a Mac Air and an iPhone out of view, but Arnalds’ manipulation of each device to make music warrants a mention, as he fuses the very new with the very old in a short set that leaves the crowd gasping for more. There is piano, and from his touring buddies there comes violin and cello, and the haunting ballads these instruments make together are as elegant as they are simple – sustained single notes from the strings, simple repeating passages on the piano and the occasional surprise key change or pause for effect. Then Arnalds augments the sound with thundering electronic boots, or looped samples – recording the crowd singing a C note and replaying it as the foundation of the opening song was a nice trick, immediately drawing the audience into the performance – and we are presented with something that is at once familiar and challenging.
Arnalds’ music has appeared in Looper, UK TV series Broadchurch and the upcoming sequel to The Hunger Games, and in the darkness you can close your eyes and construct your own perfect scene of sweeping sadness or serene beauty. He hunches over the piano like Peanuts’ Schroeder, plinking a handful of choice notes while the world goes on around him, and even with the music careening towards you there is a feeling of space. Perhaps to chop up the heavy emotion, between songs Arnalds is a joker, quipping about writer’s block in Los Angeles and how The Hunger Games stole from Japanese film Battle Royale. So you know, the real heavy stuff. It’s too soon when the final hanging note fades and the iPad – he calls it Mr Jobs – is put away, but luckily the temporary world Arnalds has created stays between your ears for a little longer.
Loved: People getting into the music despite the sit down arrangements. Like, really getting into it. Heavy head bobbing and hands floating in the air into it.
Hated: Hate is a strong word, but an 11pm set from Hiatus Kayote obliterated any chance of an encore.
Drank: Boatrocker Alpha Queen
