Icelandic composer and producer Ólafur Arnalds and the late Irish artist Eoin French, known as Talos, began work on A Dawning during a collaborative residency in Cork. The album, a moving meditation on friendship, loss, and creative connection, will be released on 11 July via OPIA Community / Mercury KX, completed by Arnalds after French’s passing in 2024.
Alongside the announcement comes Signs, the second single from the album, highlighting French’s distinctive vocal style set against Arnalds’ finely textured electronic arrangements. The track was the pair’s first written together, capturing the early spirit of their creative relationship before the project had taken full shape.
Even after, while I was there working on some arrangements, I never felt like I was truly alone
“At its core, ‘Signs’ feels like a coming together, a curious meeting of creative souls." Arnalds recalls. "It’s filled with carefree experimentation and exploration. ‘Signs’ was the first song that Eoin and I wrote together. It was only shortly after we became friends and we were rather decisively paired together by our friend Mary Hickson at her music residency in Cork - she seemed very sure that we would get along musically. She was right, of course. It was the start of an incredible, inspiring, heartbreaking but heartfelt journey that took us places we could never have imagined in our wildest dreams. So it feels appropriate that it comes out as we announce this album that became the fruit of that journey.”
The first single, We Didn’t Know We Were Ready, featured contributions from Niamh Regan, Ye Vagabonds and a choir of close collaborators. It was first performed earlier this year on RTÉ’s The Tommy Tiernan Show, joined by artists including Dermot Kennedy and The Staves.
The project began in 2023 at the Sounds from a Safe Harbour Festival in Cork, where both artists had been invited for a music residency. Their collaboration continued in Arnalds’ Reykjavík studio and at French’s home in West Cork. After French became seriously ill during a later visit to Iceland, Arnalds completed the album alone, drawing on the shared material and memories of their time together.
“We made this album together,” Arnalds says. “Even after, while I was there working on some arrangements, I never felt like I was truly alone. Near the end, where we were saying how grateful we were to have met each other, he told me, ‘You know, I’m still gonna be there.’”
A Dawning stands as a tribute to French’s artistic legacy and the friendship at its core. The album will be out on CD, LP and Digitally on the 11th of July 2025, pre-order the album and listen to the second single Signs now here.
