Ólafur Arnalds - Eulogy For Evolution

Aside from a Sigur Rós concert [or a Heaven Shall Burn album] you may never have heard of Ólafur Arnalds. It was only recently that I had heard the name, and I downloaded his debut album Eulogy For Evolution on a whim once I read that he spent some time opening for fellow Iceland export Sigur Rós [one of my favorites]. Don't, however, expect Sigur Rós to be found anywhere on this brilliant debut album. The only thing that the two bands share is a common home; musically they are as different as night and day.

Arnalds [now in his very early 20s] is less a musician and more a composer, his compositions belonging to the soundtrack of some yet-unmade film. The music focuses on the piano, and then branches out to include swelling and at times boisterous strings; it is full of passion and moves and shifts in the same unpredictable way as smoke from a flame. With the exception of the soundtrack from the film The Fountain, I have not heard such beautiful classically-based music created in the last 10 years. Clocking in at just under 40 minutes, Eulogy For Evolution is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and moving pieces of music I have ever heard, never losing its edge and never becoming anything other than awe-inspiring, from the opening notes of "0040" to the abrasive and progressive guitars in the final track "3704/3837". Truely a thing to behold.

Tracklisting:
1. 0040
2. 0048/0729
3. 0952
4. 1440
5. 1953
6. 3055
7. 3326
8. 3704/3837

Highlight Tracks: "1440", "1953", "3055", "3704/3837"


I deleted the rapidshare link and replaced it with megaupload. let me know if it craps out at any time