mon 07/07/2025

Album: Olafur Arnalds and Talos - A Dawning | reviews, news & interviews

Album: Olafur Arnalds and Talos - A Dawning

Album: Olafur Arnalds and Talos - A Dawning

Shimmery, shiny Icelandic-Irish ambience steeped in beauty

Silken ambience is the name of the game on this set from Icelandic composer-producer Olafur Arnalds and dreampop singer Talos, aka Eoin French, who tragically died in August last year, aged 36. Arnalds completed the album after his death.

Talos' high, otherworldly voice is the dominant signature, from the opening title track with its heavy swell of strings at the high points, through to the spare piano and voice passages of “Bedrock”, a slow, melancholy piano ballad bathed in shimmering reverb and a chorus of voices. Talos’ delicate lone voice over Arnalds’ spare piano lines draws you in deeply, immediately and strikingly beautiful in its effects, but sometimes the reverb on the voice, the limpid instrumental settings, the piano polished to a sheen, feel almost oppressively perfect, too.

Still, A Dawning has much to admire, in the ambient layering of the music by Arnalds, whose Ultimate Calm show on Radio 3 would be the perfect platform for A Dawning’s music. It lives in the space where ambient meets dream pop, a lyrical, gossamer space of heartfelt lyricism evoking natural cycles and sources of feeling that swell and overflow the way Talos’s high sweet voice does against the piano, synth, glitchy beats and layered ambience of “Signs”. “Shared Time” is a brief spoken word evoking shamanistic tendencies behind a wash of electronics, while “We Didn’t Know We Were Ready” is a highlight, with its emotive melody lines, questing, questioning lyrics and backing vocals from a choir that includes Niamh Regan and Ye Vagabonds. The instrumental “For Steph” is another striking piece, so intimately recorded you can hear the pedals of Arnalds’ solo piano doing its work in the underlays; even the sound of pressing down the keys. Then a thin ribbon of violin, cello, a quartet gathering into a sweet sonic swell.

The album's flawless surface sometimes feel at odds with the messines of human inhabitation and interaction, but it's an otherworldly music that beguiles and calms, too, a refined, high-grade musical balm for a bruising world, and fans of the much-missed Talos’s otherworldly vocals will be very well rewarded.

A refined, high-grade musical balm for a bruising world

rating

Editor Rating: 
4
Average: 4 (1 vote)

Share this article

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £49,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters