some kind of peace — piano reworks

Ólafur Arnalds’ 2020 album some kind of peace was a haunting blend of classical music, ambient and acoustic sounds, and wistful electronics. For this reworked version of the album, Arnalds—a champion of creative collaboration—invited a strikingly diverse cast of musical innovators to experiment with its tracks. Pianist-composers Hania Rani and Dustin O’Halloran, jazz pianist and rapper Alfa Mist, the singer and composer JFDR, and cross-genre pianist, composer, and producer Magnús Jóhann are just some of the artists who answered his call. some kind of peace – piano reworks offers individual takes on Arnalds’ compositions while preserving their gentle melancholy. The new album’s contributors reveal their deep affection for his art through the prism of their own musical psyches. Rani, for example, hums a seductive sotto voce version of “Woven Song” to her keyboard accompaniment, while Jóhann conjures exquisite prepared-piano sounds in “Undone.” Elsewhere, Alfa Mist turns “Zero” into a smoky jazz ballad, and O’Halloran brings an otherworldly meditation to “Spiral.” “I’ve always maintained that a song is never really finished—that an album is just a snapshot of what the songs are at the time of recording,” Arnalds tells Apple Music. “When the idea of a reworks album came up, I wanted to put that theory to the test and get a group of artists I admire to experiment with the songs, pull them apart, and put them back together with their unique signature. I only gave them one direction: that there had to be a piano somewhere in there.” Collaboration has always been part of Arnalds’ arsenal. The composer and multi-instrumentalist’s breakthrough album, the original soundtrack to British television crime drama Broadchurch, included two unforgettable tracks featuring Icelandic prog-rock singer Arnór Dan. Further fruitful collaborations followed in The Chopin Project, made in partnership with classical pianist Alice Sara Ott, the enchanting Island Songs, and a series of ear-catching singles. “Collaboration is something I enjoy immensely and look for in all aspects of my artistic expression,” he says. "When I was writing some kind of peace, under strange and solitary circumstances in the early months of 2020, I was forced to find new ways of exploring what that term, collaboration, could mean.” Indeed, despite lockdown restrictions, some kind of peace found Arnalds uniting with British musician and DJ Bonobo, German singer-songwriter Josin, JFDR, and other friends. Their collective creativity set the foundations for its reworked sibling. “The result is a beautiful album that I’m proud to have my name on,” says Arnalds. “And it’s proof that the heart of the song really lives in the performer.”