Iceland's BAFTA-winning producer ólafur Arnalds has always appreciated the intricacies and depth of Frédéric Chopin, even when he was pounding out blast beats from behind his throne in metalcore outfit Fighting Shit. But the stolid tradition of "classical recording," not surprisingly, that seemed especially flat for the Broadchurch composer. An iconoclast, perhaps, Arnalds (not to be confused with his singer-songwriter cousin, ólöf Arnalds) wanted to put a finer point on Chopin's music here in his own digi-age.
Of course, that's not to say this Mr. Arnalds has denied that certain Polish composer's alluring je ne sais quoi. But with an entire century and more of technological expansion from which to pull, the former's found a beguilingly unique way to hear the latter.
To wit, in collaboration with German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott, Arnalds has wrought The Chopin Project, released in March via Mercury and Universal Music Classics.
We were able to get him to take our phone call from the road, where he spoke about Chopin, microphone placement, working with Ms. Ott, why waltzes are manly and the glorious music video for the new single, "Reminiscence."
Classicalite: First off, I know you don't like the word 'reinventing,' so, what would you say you're doing to Chopin with this disc?
ólafur Arnalds: I didn't want to 'reinvent' Chopin, but I wanted to hear him in a different way. I'm not trying to change the course of history or anything. I'm a big fan of his music, myself. However, I wanted to hear Chopin recorded today--with modern producers.
CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING
