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Baker's Dozen

Found Songs: Ólafur Arnalds' Favourite Albums
Wyndham Wallace , March 11th, 2013 12:56

The Icelandic neo-classical composer and producer takes a break from producing his cinematic soundscapes to pick out his 13 favourite records, ahead of his set at the Barbican tonight

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Nils Frahm - Felt
He totally reinvented the piano there. I know that’s a very big statement, but the piano has stayed the same for such a long time: in pop, in classical, in no matter what music it is. The piano’s very… Either people just record it as it is, or they put some effects on it to make it different. Nils actually just recorded it as it is, but he did it in such an inventive and interesting way that the outcome was a piano sound that nobody has really ever done before and which has influenced me a lot. I’m doing this kind of piano sound a lot now, and I think more people are. I think this record will prove to be very important over the course of the next years. I think my favourite is the third track. I actually just have the original master that Nils sent me from his studio, which doesn’t have the song titles on it. It’s a very slow track which really shows off the piano sound in a very great way. But all of the tracks are good. He’s one of my best friends, actually, so I’m a little bit biased here. Whenever we meet we tend to make some music, so whenever we’ve met often enough we’ll probably release a record. But no concrete plans at the moment.