Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds enjoys presenting and releasing music in unusual ways. Tracks from his 2009 album Found Songs were offered via Twitter the day they were recorded, and he's done concerts with the music improvised completely on the fly. One of his two recent projects continues along this path but introduces another technological twist. With Living Room Songs, Arnalds again released a week's worth of songs one at a time, but this time he taped the recordings and put them on YouTube. Made in his Reykjavik apartment, the videos are spare and straightforward, with slow-pan shots of his kitchen and bookshelf. Arnalds orchestrates from his piano while assorted musicians (usually string players) flesh out his subdued modern classical arrangements.
There's a voyeuristic kick you get watching these clips, not only from seeing Arnalds' creative process but his actual home-- his couches and friends and personal belongings. The question is whether this music transcends the concept, if the songs function on their own apart from the YouTube format. Arnalds has released them as an album, so presumably he thinks so, but I'm not as certain. From opener "Fyrsta" to the plaintive "Tomorrow's Song", the tracks feel more like sketches than fully formed compositions. Most begin as slow, deliberate piano arrangements, sometimes incorporating strings or synths along the way, but rarely amount to more than a gentle hum. The music is pretty but still-- without many shifts in color or tone, they sit there like flat, two-dimensional objects.
Arnalds' other new project, a film score for Sam Levinson's Another Happy Day, provides an interesting contrast. The soundtrack builds on some of the ideas from Living Room Songs and has a similar melancholy vibe (the movie is pretty bleak), but is more realized. There's the same patient minimalism (Arnalds seems to like drawing as much out of one note before moving on to the next) but where that made for inert compositions before, here they sound polished, almost regal. The best cuts find Arnalds unafraid to blend genres and mix in the electronic flourishes we heard on his earlier records. A good example is closer "Everything Must Change", which creates a menacing atmosphere from violin plucks, synth stabs, and a heavy hip-hop drum break. You don't need the story or the visual to feel the tension in it.
Another Happy Day doesn't always work as well as a standalone object. Film scores are admittedly tough, because people expect them to act like regular albums when they're usually designed to play a supporting role. The best soundtracks can and do build compelling sonic worlds apart from movies, though, and recent examples include Trent Reznor's work on The Social Network or Cliff Martinez's on Drive. Arnalds' score ultimately isn't as satisfying, especially in the front half where he's excessively patient and slow to build momentum. It can feel stiff, formal. Still, the score proves a much better vehicle for him than the immediacy of YouTube. That's fun for a moment, but music like this works better when it's got time to develop.
