Island Songs

Originally released in 2016, Island Songs is the innovative brainchild of BAFTA award winning composer Ólafur Arnalds, alongside acclaimed film director Baldvin Z (BBCs Trapped, Life in a Fish Bowl).  Bringing the listener a unique and evolving audio-visual portrait of his home country of Iceland, Ólafur travelled to 7 towns across Iceland where he collaborated with 7 local artists, and at each location he created, recorded and performed a new composition with the artist. He delivered the audio and video the following day. Mercury Classics then released one audio track and one live performance video each Monday.

Island Songs was a real-time interactive project evolved in the digital space, and was hosted via a bespoke website. Arnalds dedicated fanbase was able to follow him on his travels via Facebook live-streams, Snapchats, Instagram, Twitter and Apple Connect. Ólafur’s journey was also chronicled by acclaimed film director Baldvin Z. The 7-week period resulted in an hour-long music film, including conversations exploring music, history and identity, to create a powerful musical portrait of their native land. At the time of release, Island Songs was the most ambitious project that Ólafur had ever undertaken, creatively and logistically.