Αναλυτική Περιγραφή
Kiasmos - Icelandic composer Olafur
Arnalds and Faroese musician Janus
Rasmussen - are returning, renewed and
restored, with II.
The triumphant follow-up to their
universally acclaimed self-titled debut in
2014, which re-envisioned minimal
techno with orchestral flourishes and
weightless production.
They’d made most of that album in just
two weeks; this time it’s been 10 years.
The making of II was a test of their
friendship, but also testament to how
great musical chemistry can always go
the distance and be just the same as it
ever was. They worked on a lot of II during the lost
year of 2020-2021, including a trip to
Olafur’s studio in Bali. "We spent a
month there and wrote a few songs that
ended up on the record," says Janus.
The pair sampled traditional Balinese
percussion like the gamelan and
incorporated Janus’s field recordings of
their natural surroundings - the sound of
birds, crickets and, on standout track
"Dazed", echoing the sunrise over the
lush landscape. Kiasmos have an
enviable knack for conveying complex
Electronic
05/07/2024
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EUR
emotions and evocative visuals with
instrumental music.But this time they’ve got more experience
as producers to draw on. The album’s
expansiveness can be linked to Olafur’s
intervening years as a Grammynominated composer and prominent
soundtracker in film and TV.
And they’ve subtly shifted from four-tothe-floor to the frenetic broken beats of
UK dance music, experimenting more
with BPMs, echoing Janus’s time spent
DJing in major venues worldwide.There are still those aching melodies that
fans know and love but they’re catchier
too: tracks like "Laced" and "Bound" have
an irresistible, elastic bounce beneath
the ethereal palette. "We just want to
make electronic music that there isn’t so
much of right now," says Janus, "to take
you on a great journey that is a little bit
unconventional." "You have to develop
into a new space," Olafur adds. But they
had to impose limits, too, to keep them
both on track and make something
memorable.Often Olafur would refuse to move on to
the next idea until they’d perfected a
chord progression or beat, to help them
stay focused and forge, he says, a "deep
understanding of what the song is."
"II is livelier," says Janus, "but it still
retains the signature Kiasmos style of
transitioning from a whisper-quiet
ambience to an explosive dance beat
that can blow your socks off."
