BAFTA winning Icelandic composer, musician and producer Ólafur Arnalds’ fourth solo studio album, re:member, is released Mercury KX on 24 August. The highly anticipated record features Ólafur’s ground-breaking new software, Stratus, which transforms the humble piano into a unique new instrument. He is currently performing his new material on a huge worldwide tour. The Stratus Pianos are two self-playing, semi-generative player pianos which are triggered by a central piano played by Ólafur, and are the centrepiece of his new works. The custom-built software is born out of two years of work by the composer and audio developer, Halldór Eldjárn. The algorithms generated from Stratus were also used to create the innovative album artwork. On the album Ólafur uses these methods reinvigorate the compositional experience, feeding back into the creative process in a completely new way. As Ólafur plays a note on the piano, two different notes are generated by Stratus, creating unexpected harmonies and surprising melodic sequences. Speaking of the album, Ólafur says, “This is my breaking out-of-a-shell album. It’s me taking the raw influences that I have from all these different musical genres and not filtering them. It explores the creative process and how one can manipulate that to get out of the circle of expectations and habit.” Ólafur’s uplifting new music uses the Stratus Pianos as well as string quartet, synths, electronics, live drums and a string orchestra recorded at London’s Air Studios. Plummeting the listener into a subversive world full of unexpected moods and emotions, Ólafur explores foreign musical soundscapes in every facet of re:member. From the very first note, the album takes the listener on a beautiful musical journey, constantly evolving and enlivening. The record concludes with a track called nyepi – meaning the Balinese ‘Day of Silence’, celebrated on New Year’s Day where everyone shuts themselves off from the outside world. Yet Ólafur is not shutting himself off – he is inviting the listener to be part of his creative process. Even in his live shows, the audience becomes part of the performance as Ólafur uses a loop machine to capture people singing and seamlessly weaves it into his piece. He says, “I want to inspire a community of creators with my music.” Internationally celebrated for his haunting musical style, Ólafur captivatingly combines elements of ambient, classical, electronic and even elements of pop and rock. re:member follows the success of his innovative musical project Island Songs (2016), and two previous improvised projects Found Songs (2009) and Living Room Music (2011), both of which involved the daily release of new works over a seven-day period. Ólafur has also been praised for extensive soundtrack work, more recently composing the score for ITV’s Broadchurch, for which he won the 2014 BAFTA for Best Original Music. Ólafur is currently on a huge worldwide tour – performing over 40 shows, after having recently sold out London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall. His spellbinding performances will bring together past, present and brand-new material in a fresh light.