Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm – Stare Review

Paving the way to Record Store Day is a new record from Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm. The record is called Stare. You can find the preview here if waiting for its release is too much

This is a great piece of work, amassed of three songs (a1, a2 and b1) and clocking in at just under twenty-six minutes. It’s a gift for the record enthusiast as well as the followers of each musician. And, if you have been planning to invest in some new music on this most significant of days for music enthusiasts, you could do far worse and I dare say not much better.

“I’m not sure why we decided to keep it secret, it just happened. But it sure was fun! I remember a party at Robert’s (Erased Tapes founder) flat in Berlin, where me and Nils stood in the corner the whole night whispering about the project. We then delivered the fully mastered record with finished artwork to Robert around the 5th anniversary of the label. It would have been nice to be there to see his face…”- Ólafur Arnalds

The record is complex. It evokes the spirit of transcontinental relationships forged over time through the language that breaks through all others. It’s a record of collaboration. One is offered glimpses of individuals who truly enjoy one another’s being and are in the proper position to express what their entanglement means.

When I listen I think of the movies. The music is impressively cinematic, but not in a minimalist sort of way where it could just be layered under any image to make it beautiful. It carries a narrative; one of friendship; one of being with time; one of experiencing the world for what it is.

“The time I spent with Óli in Berlin made me very happy and the music wasn’t like anything I have heard before. It was all very reduced and minimal and I felt like I couldn’t have done this alone.” – Nils Frahm

The music is happy. In as much as it is about friendship as it is about the joy of doing what you love. Making music. Putting it out there. There was no deadline. It was made as time was made. You can feel this process. Nothing is pushed or heavy handed. Nothing feels like it is trying to do anything, but be itself. This sort of arrangement is inspiring and reason enough to pay tribute to the artistry. It pays for itself.

a1 has a pulsing quality that starts things off. Then arrives the percussive, piano like sound whose resonance lingers long enough to welcome the next beat. With this then arrives the more expressly piano frame with a certain string quality and a lush background of sound that is reminiscent of waves though it may just as easily be white noise. This styling lasts for the first couple of minutes and then new pieces are added that almost give the track a thriller (as in the movie genre) styling. I started to see quick cuts of city life, people running; a world unfolding before my very eyes. This carries the track into its following.

a2 then has a weight to it quite unlike a1. It is calmer; shorter in length and somewhat of a breath to a1’s beginning run. There is a lighter tone to its DNA with much less bass and percussion. The main instrument that arrives a third of the way through sounds more like a modulated guitar than the piano sounds that so previously dominated.

Carried over from a1 are the waves or white noise sounding elements. It unites both tracks to somewhat of a before and after consideration. Imagining this on vinyl it creates a fine side to a record. The combination is a complete idea. And, since each side speaks to the place from which it was birthed, it allows for a closing before getting into the final track on the other side.

b2 is quite different; its own beast. Longer than either a1 or a2 and much more ruminant, it speaks to the entirety of the country’s engagement. In the beginning it feels like cell division. I watch as small elements fragment from one another creating more and more of themselves. Quieter elements slowly build underneath the foundation. They arrive so as we are unaware; lulling us into a disillusioned state of complacency. And then things start to change. The world subtly evolves.

When it happens we cannot fight it. There is nothing to make of the action. One can only keep going,  but the track never asks us to either. Where it begins is where it ends. Though the sounds evolve in between, they never illicit the progression imposed by a1 and a2. Rather, it is as if something has happened. Whether we knew it or not, is of no concern. We are left in the aftermath; the cleanup phase. And no amount of introspection will ever clarify what exactly has been going on.

One could count each side as its own narrative or each track as its own, but altogether there is a larger creation at hand. Together they create an experience that I am pleased to have embarked upon. I crave seeing the visuals that could be attached to each piece. I’d love to see this as cinema.

But, then again, maybe the best of films are always those running through our own heads.

Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm - Stare Review
Rating
Buy this record whenever you can. Not only on Record Store Day (though the symbolic value is always fantastic). Buy it for yourself and the rides for which it promises. I can think of nothing better than what lingers within these three tracks.

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