Eccentric sub-pop promoters Hey! Manchester struck avant-garde gold yet again for their part in bringing Icelandic mutli-instrumetalist singing sensation OLOF ARNALDS to the city on the last leg of a tour that has already taken her across mainland Europe.
Arnalds' third album 'Sudden Elevation' , her first with lyrics written entirely in the English language, is, like her recent living room shows, an extension of her ongoing campaign to reach out to individuals as part of the war against the loneliness and marginalisation felt by those on the outer fringes of society.
W&H have already sided with the multitudes of music lovers who have fallen hook, line and sinker for the delicately conveyed emotional currency of the aforementioned record and so we were delighted to get the chance beforehand to hear her share her thoughts and views on the whole art of performance, and it's essential relationship with creativity.
I read somewhere that you actually enjoyed touring - that's quite unusual for a recording artist!
"Yes, I do like touring - I think for me the travelling, of course, it makes you a bit knackered."
"But my music has always been created, developed and sustained through live performance and I believe in live performance as a way to develop music:
"I can't really see how you can do one without the other. But yeah, I really enjoy performing - it's a big part of my output."
Have the venues all been as inimate as this one?
"Not all of them - I'm curious about how intimacy works. I've done a lot of intimate shows, and now recently as part of my press campaign, I've even done living room concerts that people have paid for:
"What I'm interested in is how you can be present for a thousand people and then absolutely not present for five people:
I think it's very interesting. Also a big part of discovering your output is to...to 'ransack' this, to find out...:
"I'm always thinking about these things and always like, not measuring, but trying to get a feeling for what the response is - for me it's so much about connection with the audience......because I can't play the show if there are no people listening. It's a joint event:
"To my mind, it's a coincidence who's on the stage, and it happens to be me, and it happens to be my job - it's just like if you were a plumber or a banker, any function you have - You also have to give it to the people! Why bother otherwise?"
I am assuming now that the tour has gone really well?
"It's been a really tough tour, because we've been playing pretty much every night, but yeah, I think it's gone really well. Skuli, my main collaborator has played alongside me every night, and we're....we're reaching new heights in getting a message across to people":
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"What's great about Skuli, and what's great about our working relationship is that he is very good at focusing down what I do - because I'm very all over the place, but I'm very specific as well - so sometimes I need someone to follow through what I do:
"I know exactly what I want, but I tend to drift..:
"Also, of course, Skuli is a great musician, and that has been a great asset to the record"
More often than not, Hey! Manc's promotion style will ensure that the setting is every bit as obscure/eclectic/unusual as the music on offer, and tonight is no different. An Icelandic-themed coffee bar, no less, one of a cluster that have popped up on Tariff Street, off Dale Street, where the 'Northern Quarter' becomes Back Piccadilly.
Immediate credit was due to Arnalds before a note was played; despite the modest size of the sell-out audience, this rarest of opportunies to catch her in performance mode had attracted possibly the widest cross section of people I've ever seen under one roof, none of whom were here by accident.
With Skuli manning a huge semi-acoustic bass by her side, Arnalds promptly weighed in to her 3/4 size classical and fought both the oppressive heat and a slight bout of nerves before going on to deliver the goods with panache.
Early on, 'Call It What You Want' saw all those comparisons with pop legend KATE BUSH fall into place, before her vocal style veered off into complete originality, to the joy of everyone present.
Her lyrics were poignant too: with the aid of a little repetition, lines like "Everybody knows that cities are built to be destroyed" were beautifully embellished by her striking voice, whilst 'Innundir Skinni' album favourite 'Crazy Car' was enough to briefly turn the audience (with a little coaxing) into doing a bit of singing as well!
From the harmonic gorgeousness of 'German Flute' through brief encounters with intimate acquaintances that unfold in 'The Joke', to the gracefulness of the title track itself, this was a more than successful showcase of 'Sudden Elevation', and a rare treat of a gig in itself.
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