The heart of a song lives in the performer…
Ólafur Arnalds
In the spirit of collaboration that permeates the work of Icelandic musician & composer Ólafur Arnalds, this autumn will see the release of a collection of songs from his 2020 album some kind of peace reworked on the piano by a hand-picked group of globe-spanning artists drawn from the realms of modern classical, electronic, jazz and alternative music. The second single from the album features Lambert and his instrumental take on “Back to the Sky” which originally featured vocals by Jófríður Ákadóttir aka JFDR who also appears on the new record with a rework of her own.
Performing the song in a Berlin apartment on his 120-year-old piano, the enigmatic masked pianist/composer takes a jazz-inflected approach while adding color & movement into the piece with the addition of guitar textures and drums. The poignant beauty of the central melody is preserved but it turns out there is ample room for Lambert’s distinctive style to shine and infuse it with a gentle buoyancy that requites the melancholic longing of the original version. It is an approach that Arnalds himself cheerful admits takes the song “somewhere I never would have imagined”.
The great thing about Olafur’s music is that he uses simple tricks to make the music sound complex or challenging. I really like that, and I really like the challenge of working with the melody on top of it.
some kind of peace — piano reworks will be released via Mercury KX on 28 October 2022. Listeners who enjoy Lambert’s work should check out the label store for other recent releases including his solo release Open which came out in the spring of this year.
Tracklist:
1) Eydís Evensen: Loom (Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass)
2) Hania Rani: Woven Song (Piano, Vocals)
3) Dustin O’Halloran: Spiral (Piano)
4) Sophie Hutchings: Still / Sound (Piano)
5) Lambert: Back To The Sky (Piano, Guitar, Drums)
6) Alfa Mist: Zero (Piano)
7) tstewart: New Grass (Piano, Guitar, Electronics)
8) JFDR: The Bottom Line (Piano, Vocals)
9) Yiruma: We Contain Multitudes (Piano)
10) Magnús Jóhann: Undone (Piano)
Links: Album | Streaming | Lambert
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