Olafur Arnalds has become a mainstay in the scoring circle. A BAFTA award-winner and composer to the ITV crime drama Broadchurch, Arnalds recently led an orchestra through a most unique program at the Sydney Opera House--one that required the participation of the audience.
In an exclusive video posted to Nowness, the 29-year-old Icelandic composer leads the audience through a playful rendition of his own Þú ert jörðin (You are the Earth). With the audience singing to the tune of a middle C, Mr. Arnalds is able--through microphones interspersed throughout the venue--to record the audience's voices and transform them into a detail in the piece.
The video shows the crowd singing along, with Arnalds recording the crowd's monotonous note through the use of his iPad on stage.
Speaking on behalf of his compositions and the Sydney Opera engagement prior to the show, Arnalds remarked on the music in an interview:
"When I'm making music I forget all about these names and definitions. To me genres are a way for us to explain something, but they should never direct or control what we're doing. We should never work within the constraints of some genre that has been made up, it's not a physical thing and there are no limits to what music can be."
The advent of new technology for the music sphere has enabled artists to capture more and interesting sounds in their music. For Mr. Arnalds, the use of this technology enabled the orchestra and himself to open up a new world to the format of live performance.
There's no telling what's next in the ólafur Arnalds canon, but his ability to seek out the most interesting ways to complete a performance is one that will continue to propel his music and career to new heights.
Check out the video from the performance below.
