Ólafur Arnalds: Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. Bob Boilen | March 4, 2021 Using an Edison “Fireside“ cylinder phonograph and his own Stratus music software, Ólafur Arnalds’ Tiny Desk (home) concert brings the past and the future into a heartfelt performance. Filmed in his tree-lined studio in Reykjavík, Iceland (the former studio of Sigur Rós), Ólafur and his string quartet perform three songs from my personal No. 1 album of 2020, some kind of peace. The pensive set opens with an older tune, “Happiness Does Not Wait,“ with Ólafur Arnalds seated at a short upright piano known as a Danish ’pianette.’ The delicate performance is the perfect window into this Icelandic composer’s profound and passionate music. The Edison wax cylinder that we hear on “Woven Song“ is a traditional Amazonian healing