Product Review

Olafur Arnalds teams up with Mercury Classics to bring you a unique and evolving audio-visual portrait of his home country of Iceland.

This project is on a scale that has never been attempted in the classical music world before.

Island Songs is the innovative brainchild of BAFTA award winning composer Olafur Arnalds, alongside acclaimed film director Baldvin Z (BBCs Trapped, Life in a Fish Bowl).

Olafur traveled to 7 towns across Iceland where he collaborated with 7 local artists, and at each location he created, recorded and performed a new composition with the artist. He delivered the audio and video the following day. Mercury Classics released one audio track and one live performance video each Monday.

Island Songs is a real-time interactive project that will evolve in the digital space, hosted via a bespoke website. Arnalds dedicated fanbase was able to follow him on his travels via Facebook live-streams, Snapchats, Instagram, Twitter and Apple Connect.

Olafurs journey was also be chronicled by acclaimed film director Baldvin Z. The 7-week period resulted in an hour-long music film, including conversations exploring music, history and identity, to create a powerful musical portrait of their native land.

This is the most ambitious project that Olafur has ever undertaken, creatively and logistically.