Olafur Arnalds, Alice Sara Ott - The Chopin Project (2015) [Official Digital Download 24-bit/96kHz]

Award-winning young Icelandic pop/classical musician Ólafur Arnalds uses a radical new approach to recording the music of Chopin. Arnalds developed an intimate, fragile and often charmingly imperfect sound using old/unusual/altered pianos captured on vintage recording equipment and various mixing techniques to re-enforce feelings of solitude or loneliness, and to create dreamlike ambient soundscapes. Pianist Alice Sara Ott joins and Ólafur has composed new works to link the album together.

This week's entry in the very-much-like-nothing-heard-before sweepstakes comes from Icelandic electronic musician and composer Ólafur Arnalds and German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott, whose recording of Chopin waltzes inspired the project. What's here are recordings of Chopin piano compositions, plus original compositions by Arnalds based on motifs from Chopin. In one case, Eyes Shut/Nocturne in C minor (track 6), the two are combined. Arnalds' pieces employ his own electronic keyboard textures, plus a live string quintet. On top of this, the pianos are vintage instruments hunted down in Reykjavik, and the ambience, if you will, was manipulated by recording in various venues and with various microphones there. And, on top of all this, Arnalds adds ambient soundscapes (noise, sounds of conversation, whispers, etc.) to the music. The ideas seem packed in a bit thick. The string quintet, for example, was a sound unused by Chopin, and it introduces an element that seems discordant with the source material. But there is a major X factor working in favor of this release: nobody has ever tried anything much like this, either with Chopin or with any other composer, and it just might be the beginning of something new and important. Check it out!

Tracklist:

01 - Verses
02 - Piano Sonata No.3 - Largo
03 - Nocturne in C sharp minor (feat. Mari Samuelsen)
04 - Reminiscence
05 - Nocturne in G minor
06 - Eyes Shut - Nocturne in C minor
07 - Written in Stone
08 - Letters Of A Traveller
09 - Prelude in D flat major 'Raindrop'


Recorded by Ólafur Arnalds, Finnur Hákonarson, Snorri Hallgrímsson and Bergur Þórisson.
Recorded at E7 Studios and Harpa Concert Hall, Iceland. Mixed by Ólafur Arnalds.
Mastered by Nils Frahm at Durton Studios.

Musicians:
Ólafur Arnalds - synthesizers, piano on "8"
Alice Sara Ott - piano
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String Quintet:
Viktor Orri Árnason
Björk Óskarsdóttir
Þórarinn Baldursson
Unnur Jónsdóttir
Hallgrímur Jónas Jensson
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Mari Samuelsen - solo violin on "3"


Thanks to the Original customer!