Ólafur Arnalds: "Spotify has too much power and must be regulated"

Music

Ólafur Arnalds.

UNIVERSAL MUSIC

The island's genius of post-classical music releases this Friday 'Some kind of peace', an album made during the first wave of the pandemic.

If we had to make a 'playlist' to put a soundtrack to our time, the result would end up looking quite similar to the music of

(Mosfellsbær, 1986).

Electronic, pop, 'classical', folklore ... Icelanders belong to that generation that has grown up with full access to all repertoires, and has integrated it into their lives with total ease.

Styles no longer serve to express the feelings of these times.

And if something has 'Some kind of peace', his latest album, it's feeling.

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The album, which sees the light this Friday through Mercury KX / Universal, was taking shape during the confinement by the first wave of Covid-19.

"At the beginning, there was this feeling that everyone who was making music had to make a statement about it, because we were all at home," he recalls.

But at the same time, this put too much pressure on people's creativity, which was unrealistic."

"After a couple of weeks, we realized that

.

So "it is not the ideal environment to create. Most people have a lot of worries and that includes musicians."

For Arnalds, it is very different "than when the Beatles stopped giving concerts to focus on the study; this is not going to result in better music being made."

Logically, a record that was made in this environment was going to be affected, no matter how firm the initial idea.

"Before the pandemic, I had already decided that this would be a purely personal album. And when all this started, it was like a confirmation of that. I felt that

Just as you are," formulates the Icelandic.

And in that core of reality, a truth:

And we do everything for love."

Not only the romantic, he influences, "but for our planet, our family, our community. At least, for me, it is at the base of everything I do."

Hence the title of 'Some kind of peace' ('Some kind of peace').

"In the process of making the album, the title appeared to me, in the midst of a pandemic," he explains.

"I was analyzing the way our lives had been turned upside down. And I noticed, above all,

We like to think about concepts like peace in a big way, like world peace. But really, just making me this cup of coffee this morning and reading the newspaper is a moment of real peace. "

"We don't see it as important," he says.

"But when they take it away from us, like when they make us confine ourselves overnight, we realize

Classical music in rock rooms

Speaking of definitions, Ólafur's work is as soon associated with the post-classical world as it is with pop or electronics.

A beautiful intersection that has grown and where he feels more and more comfortable.

Thus, for example, on this album he collaborates with the DJ and producer

.

"When I started making music, not so long ago, about 10 years ago, it was very different. You had rock, or you could be punk, or you liked classical. That bothered me a lot. And I felt that my mission was to break with that of Somehow. So

. "

"It's great", he celebrates, "to attend this change and see that the people who listen to my music don't come from one place. It doesn't matter what you like: it's music and that's it."

The key, he says, "is to do the same as if you were painting a picture. You have to make the colors define what you want to convey, use them with purpose. Just like mixing different instruments from different origins, but with one intention.

"Classic" and "electronic".

Two words that are more than words.

Or maybe not.

"We created these definitions," Arnalds says.

"It is different from colors because colors are, to a certain extent, real. But definitions do not 'exist'. So we should be able to mix them in any way you want. However, at the same time, as we have created them 'they exist 'and we have to take that into account, be careful how we mix them. "

Arnalds' words hit a dead end when it comes to talking about concerts.

"The live is the place where, finally, the musician meets the public. And it

says.

"For me," he explains, "it is an opportunity to tell the story of the music. Especially today, when most

and most listeners don't even listen to the entire album. "

"Of course," he laments, "there aren't going to be concerts for at least another year.

So we have to find ways to tell that story. It's exactly how great inventions have come about, out of the need to find new ideas. It is there where humanity makes the great discoveries, "he proclaims with hope.

Although later it decays:

, but I still don't know what the solution is".

What he does see clearly is the danger of blindly surrendering to technology.

Above all, through

It is true that the internet has brought us many great things, but there is a difference between using it as a tool and turning it into something that I ended up controlling us. "

At the same time, he says, "it is the world in which I live and if I want my music to be heard, especially in a time of pandemic, the only place where I can really meet my people without being able to go to a concert are the networks So yes: it is something necessary now, but we have to urgently regulate it. "

And he gives a concrete example:

. Because, if they decide, they can erase my career with a stroke of the pen and kill me."

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