Title - 'The Chopin Project'
Artist - Ólafur Arnalds & Alice Sara Ott
For those not in the classical know, Ólafur Arnalds (the celebrated composer of the score for TV series Broadchurch) is a BAFTA-winning multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbær, Iceland. Arnalds mixes strings and piano with loops and edgy beats crossing-over from ambient/electronic to pop. Indeed, Arnalds was a drummer of hardcore / metal bands Fighting Shit and Celestine, as well as others!
As for Alice Sara Ott, she was born in Munich, Germany, in 1988 and it's been said that at the tender age of just three, after being taken to a concert, she decided she wanted to become a pianist. She started piano lessons when she was four, and reached the final stage of the youth competition in Munich at the age of five, playing to a full house in the Hercules Hall.
And so one day, on a long flight to London, the two came together and thus the partnership, and, of course, The Chopin Project was born. For the album, in achieving what he was setting out to do, Arnalds developed an intimate, fragile and often charmingly imperfect sound using old/unusual/altered pianos captured on vintage recording equipment.
He has also employed various mixing techniques to re-enforce feelings of solitude or loneliness, and to create dreamlike ambient soundscapes. The listener should feel so close to the performer that he or she can hear each breath, or fragile touch of the keys. Sure that means listening rather more closely than one would usually imagine they have to, but classical music is all about immersing oneself when the needle hits the groove, so to speak.
1. Verses (4:03)
2. Piano Sonata No. 3: Largo (9:17)
3. Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor (feat. Mari Samuelsen) (4:23)
4. Reminiscence (4:28)
5. Nocturne in G Minor (3:01)
6. Eyes Shut – Nocturne in C Minor (6:41)
7. Written in Stone (3:27)
8. Letters Of A Traveller (4:17)
9. Prélude in D-Flat Major (“Raindrop”) (5:56)
www.olafurarnalds.com
www.alicesaraott.com
www.mercuryclassics.com