This week's entry in the very-much-like-nothing-you've-ever-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 you get 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 six), 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 and decide for yourself! ~ James Manheim