Olafur Arnalds – Some Kind of Peace: Piano Reworks (Vinyl LP)

Groundbreaking Icelandic composer and producer Ólafur Arnalds has invited a global line-up of friends, collaborators and artists he admires from across the musical spectrum to reimagine his previous album Some Kind Of Peace, which featured Ólafur’s two Grammy-nominated tracks, “The Bottom Line” (feat. Bonobo) and “Loom” (feat. Josin). Some Kind Of Peace: Piano Reworks celebrates each artist’s individual character, sound and interpretation as the essence of each song and spans modern classical, electronic, jazz and alternative worlds. “The heart of a song lives in the performer” Arnalds explained, “I’ve always maintained the notion that a song is never finished. A piece of music can take on any form, evolve and breathe with whomever is playing it. Thus, for me, the heart of a song lives in the performer.”

Hania Rani’s interpretation of “Woven Song,” the first single from Some Kind Of Peace: Piano Reworks, features her playing the piano and hypnotically humming. Hania noted, “I think you need to decide what it is you want to bring, what kind of feeling, what kind of atmosphere and what kind of state you want to leave the listener in. I simply just hummed the melody, as I would do when I am alone. Somehow, this is both soothing and fragile.”

Other artists featured on Some Kind Of Peace: Piano Reworks include South Korean pianist/composer Yiruma with “We Contain Multitudes,” American pianist/composer Dustin O’Halloran with “Spiral,” genre-blurring UK jazz pianist, producer/rapper Alfa Mist with “Zero,” electronic producer Machinedrum’s alter-ego tstewart with “New Grass,” singer-songwriter, producer and composer JFDR with “The Bottom Line,” Berlin’s pianist, producer/composer Lambert with “Back To The Sky,” Australian pianist/composer Sophie Hutchings with “Still / Sound,” cinematic pianist/composer Eydís Evensen with “Loom” and cross-genre pianist, composer and producer Magnús Jóhann with “Undone.”

1. Loom – piano reworks – Eydís Evensen
2. Woven Song – piano reworks – Hania Rani
3. Spiral – piano reworks – Dustin O’Halloran
4. Still / Sound – piano reworks – Sophie Hutchings
5. Back To The Sky – piano reworks – Lambert
6. Zero – piano reworks – Alfa Mist
7. New Gras – piano reworks – tstewart
8. The Bottom Line – piano reworks – JFDR
9. We Contain Multitudes – piano reworks – Yurima
10. Undone – piano reworks – Magnús Jóhann