After a few days travelling and camping in the highlands of Iceland, Bonobo and Ólafur Arnalds went back into the studio to relax and make some music together. The result was a song so enthralling that Arnalds kept coming back to it when putting together his next album, 2020’s Some Kind of Peace.
It’s fitting that the song is a two-person collaboration, because it’s a song that feels two-sided in many ways. It sounds synthetic but also natural. It sounds modern but also classic. It could just as easily be a first listen of the day, or as you’re hitting the pillow.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The synth pattern that emerges at the beginning was programmed by Arnalds on his own software; he plays chords on a keyboard and the synth takes those notes and plugs it into the stuttering pattern you hear at the beginning. Hold that thought.
2. The chopped up vocals that fade in near the beginning but only become clear at around 2:30 are courtesy of Bonobo, and I can’t help thinking that they’re sung by fairies.
3. Also at 2:30, a piano comes into the mix, and if the pattern sounds familiar, that’s because you’re hearing a player piano (one of those old-timey pianos that plays itself) hooked up to that synth pattern mentioned above; it’s not a synthesized piano, but a synthesizer and some software controlling a real acoustic piano.
If this type of technological / musical nerdery makes the left hemisphere of your brain tingle, you should watch this video, in which Arnalds goes into deep detail about the track and the various pieces of software he’s developed.
If, however, you’re feeling more right-brained, you might enjoy the official video for this song, which features interpretive dancers doing their thing while waist-deep in an Icelandic lake.
Recommended listening activity:
Eating organic food off a plastic plate.