For Now I am Winter

《此刻我是冬天》：阿德纳尔斯的艺术进化论 26岁的年轻音乐人奥拉维·阿德纳尔斯（ÓlafurArnalds）出生于冰岛首都雷克雅未克郊区，他的才华与能力早已举世公认。从新古典主义到电子音乐、极简主义声响，他广泛吸收不同流派的精华，却又保持了自己的声音世界中独特的个性。 阿德纳尔斯在2007年发行了首张个人专辑《进化的挽歌/Eulogy for Evolution》，并参与了诸多不同领域的音乐项目。他的演出足迹遍布欧洲、北美和中国，尤以其亲和的台风被乐迷所赞颂。2013年，他的第三个全长录音室专辑《此刻我是冬天》发行，为听众带来了一些和以往不一样的声音。 近几年阿德纳尔斯的声望节节高升，这离不开他的广泛涉猎与辛勤工作。2009年以来，他的名字不断地出现在各类影视作品中，包括为电影《开心又一天/Another Happy Day》、英国ITV电视台新剧《小镇疑云/Broadchurch》创作配乐，以及为电影《饥饿游戏/TheHunger Games》、《环形使者/Looper》贡献插曲；阿德纳尔斯还以“每天创作、发布一首作品”的创意方式，将自己随性创作的小品集结成两张EP, 《作品拾遗/Found Songs》和《起居室之歌/Living Room Songs》，提供免费下载，并得到了忠实乐迷的积极反馈。他们自发为这些曲目制作了音乐录影带，并在网上彼此分享。 这些不懈努力不仅为阿德纳尔斯积聚了人气，也帮助他迅速确立了自己丰富、融合的音乐性格。人们不仅在他的作品里听到了作曲家马克斯·黎希特（Max Richter）的影响，还将他与冰岛同乡、后摇滚乐团SigurRós、前辈作曲家约翰·约翰松（JóhannJóhannsson）相提并论。 与此同时，跨界合作与旁支计划也源源不断地为阿德纳尔斯提供灵感。这包括与好友雅努斯·拉斯穆森（Janus Rasmussen）成立电子组合Kiasmos、与尼尔斯·弗拉姆（Nils Frahm）合作EP《凝望/Stare》、为英国舞蹈家韦恩·麦格雷格（Wayne McGregor）的芭蕾舞《二分体1909/Dyad 1909》创作配乐。阿德纳尔斯认为不断地与外界合作是非常必要的，“如果你从不和别人合作，那你也没有学习的榜样，更不会进步。” 这些融合带来的灵感，体现在阿德纳尔斯的新专辑《此刻我是冬天》里。其风格和他以前的作品形成了鲜明的对比——更直接、更大胆。相比于上张录音室专辑《逃离黑暗之重/...And They Have Escaped The Weight Of Darkness》中多是由“钢琴+弦乐”主导、辅以电子元素的中慢板作品，《此刻我是冬天》的编配更为繁复，声响更具张力，但曲式结构上却蕴含了更多的流行感觉，容易入耳。 在为时一年创作过程中，阿德纳尔斯始终在酝酿着改变。就在几个月前他基本完成了全部创作，却感觉有些不对头，好像是在原地踏步。“我觉得这些曲子写得不错，但仅仅停留在均质化的水平上，没有什么进步。”这时，阿德纳尔斯的一个朋友调侃他：“别光顾着在社交网络上玩新花样，要搞创新就在录音室里搞！” 朋友的玩笑可不是随口说说。阿德纳尔斯很懂得运用社交网络，他的乐迷在脸书、推特和他的个人网站上表现出极高的忠诚度和互动性，他的两张网络EP也收到了不少乐迷有见地的解读和点评。于是他听从了朋友的话，放弃了很多已经写好的部分，重新开始，并尝试了些新的创作手法。 最显而易见的改变，就是美国作曲家尼可·穆利（NicoMuhly）的加入。这位跨界古典、流行与电影配乐的作曲家主要帮助阿德纳尔斯润色管弦乐部分。“如果我给合成器写了一个包含两个音符的旋律，那么穆利的任务就是把这个简单的旋律拓展，编写织体与和声，让它适合用三十件乐器来演奏。”阿德纳尔斯这样解释。 完整的管弦乐团编配不仅让《此刻我是冬天》拥有了更饱满、动态更清晰的声音，也赋予听众更大的遐想空间。例如专辑中的《只有风/Only the Winds》，其电影配乐质感的结尾堪称整张作品里最戏剧化、最具张力的片段。 阿德纳尔斯原来惯用的极简主义手法已经不再突出，而专辑中另一大特点，便是人声的创作和使用。 以前，经常有人向阿德纳尔斯提议和知名歌手合作一两首单曲，这也是新古典和电子音乐人惯用的思路。但阿德纳尔斯始终没有找到感觉。“我只是觉得不太适合。如果刻意而为，反而会让作品显得扭捏。”不过他的确有过不错的合作经历——那是2011年，坂本龙一发起了一张为日本海啸募捐的慈善专辑，其中阿德纳尔斯和冰岛歌手阿诺·丹·阿纳尔松（Arnór Dan Arnarson）合作了一曲《苍老之肤/Old Skin》。这首作品不仅收入了《此刻我是冬天》，阿德纳尔斯还再度邀请阿纳尔松合作了三首歌——《此刻我是冬天/For Now I Am Winter》，《回收/Reclaim》和《语结/A Stutter》。 来自阿纳尔松的影响不仅体现在为专辑献声，他本来就是阿德纳尔斯的好朋友。“这张新作可以算作我们共同努力的结果。是他的参与让我决定将专辑命名为《此刻我是冬天》，”阿德纳尔斯说，“这首缓慢的作品也就成了专辑标题曲。它恍惚、阴沉的旋律构造出的氛围可谓前所未有。倒退回18个月前，我是完全想象不到自己会写出这样的作品的。” 这张新作无疑代表了迄今为止阿德纳尔斯最大的自我挑战。近些年来，冰岛的新古典音乐人集体发力，他们的音乐语言已经形成了独特的冰岛风格，而阿德纳尔斯在这张专辑中希望以此为基础，更上一层楼。尽管创作过程漫长，但从最终成型的作品来看，所有的返工都是值得的。 “我想集中精力、有始有终地做一张专辑。我对这张专辑很有信心，而且能如愿搞一些创新非常让我兴奋。”对于阿德纳尔斯而言，他一直在不断地尝试新想法和新手法。在《此刻我是冬天》里，他的音乐和理念都有所进步：不仅在作品架构上更丰富、更饱满，更让我们看到了一个全新的奥拉维·阿德纳尔斯——现在，他不仅仅是一位作曲家，还多了一个新的身份——歌曲作者。 © Luke Slater, 2013 翻译: 牟方舟 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For Now I Am Winter: Ólafur Arnalds continues his artistic evolution ÓlafurArnalds has steadily built a reputation as one of the world’s most bright and able young composers. Purveying a neo-classical style withan array of influences which range from electronica to minimalism, he is an artist who draws from a variety of sources whilst maintaining his own unique sound. Since the release of his 2007 debut, Eulogy for Evolution, the 26-year-old Icelander from Mosfellsbær, a small-town suburb of Reykjavik, has put his name to a variety of projects. The accompanying small-scale live showshavetaken him across Europe, North America and to China, and are where the intimacy of Arnalds’ performance and personality shine through. 2013 brings the release of his third full-length studio album, For Now I Am Winter; which is a categorical side-step away from the sound he is best known for. There can be little doubt that the recent and rapid progression of Arnalds’ career has hastened his development both as a composer and as a figure of renown, and the increasing variety of his work has clearly been an aid. Since 2009 he has scored films and TV shows includingAnother Happy Day, ITV’s upcoming drama Broadchurchand the Vanessa Hudgens-starring feature film Gimme Shelter, as well as having tracks feature on the soundtracks to Hollywood hits The Hunger Games and Looper. There have also been two free EPs each composed in a week; Found Songs in 2009 and Living Room Songs in 2011. Both of these collections featured works written and recorded in a day, the former innovatively released through Twitter and the latterreleased to his fans with accompanying videos through his social media channels and website. The combination of all of the above has helped Arnalds find his own space in a scene which spans a great deal of the musical landscape, from the ambient works of Max Richter to the expansive soundscapes of his countrymen in SigurRós and the neo-classical compositions of JóhannJóhannsson. Similarly, collaborations and side projects – as the electronica-based Kiasmos with Janus Rasmussen, with Nils Frahm in making the EP Stare, or with choreographer Wayne McGregor on his ballet Dyad 1909 – allow a fresh inlet for ideas from artists across various genres, something he thrives off. “I think it’s absolutely necessary. If you never work with anyone else you have no-one to learn from.” Evidently Arnalds is an artist who is wary of becoming stuck in familiar processes, as For Now I Am Winter’s backstory shows. The foremost and most striking aspect of For Now I Am Winter is just how much more immediate and bold it is in comparison to previous records. Where the piano-led pieces of his most recent studio album, …and they have escaped the weight of darkness, thrive on slow-paced and slow-burning set-ups, here we are furnished with compositions more complex in make-up. On past outings the basis was almost always piano and strings with electronic embellishments merely skirting the periphery. Now the dynamic has shifted. Yet, in some ways the final product is more structurally conventional, with Arnalds thinking in terms decidedly more poppy than before. This deliberate change came during the writing process, which began early last year. Fast forward a few months and the writing was all but finished, yet something was amiss. “I had the whole album, but I was feeling like it was the same. It was good, but not a huge step for me.” The spark was a conversation with a friend who Arnalds says was encouraging him “to be more innovative with the actual music and not only my Twitter!” The advice may have been playfully barbed, as Arnalds maintains a large, dedicated and strong online community through Facebook, Twitter and his website, providing daily and insightful updates into his work as an artist, as his method of releasing Living Room Songs and Found Songsdemonstrates. His friend’s word was taken and the result was to return to the bare bones and start anew, changing tack and discarding the approach of bygone releases. What and how it would be altered was already known and American composer Nico Muhly was brought in to help with the orchestral arrangements. “I wanted him to take what I had already written and make the textures more coloured. So, if I had a synth line which was just 2 notes, he would just put those 2 notes and spread them over 30 different instruments in different ways,” he says. The use of fuller orchestration allows For Now I Am Winter room to breathe, grow and flourish as well as emphasising its dynamic shifts, with the cinematic conclusion to Only The Winds managing to provide some of the record’s deepest and most dramatic moments. The minimalism of foregone outings is noticeably less prominent, but undoubtedly the biggest leap is made with the frequent use of vocal melodies. In the past the suggestion had been to collaborate with a well-known singer, a prospect which did not sit comfortably. “None of that really felt right to me. It felt so forced and it didn’t feel like we were doing it for the right reasons”.Having worked with and used the vocals of Agent Fresco singer Arnór Dan Arnarson in a track for Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Japanese tsunami benefit project – which would make it onto the new album as Old Skin – the shimmering result was so successful and enjoyable that Arnór’s vocals now appear on three more tracks, For Now I Am Winter, Reclaim and A Stutter. Arnór’s influence is evident throughout, down to helping come up with the album name. His involvement is one not just between artists, but also between friends. “The album is definitely a result of both of our ideas, even in the songs that don’t have his vocals. His vocals affected my decisions for the rest of the songs,” says Arnalds. The slow-moving title track is like nothing which has come before it; its lethargic and sullen melody creating an outcome that may have been near-unimaginable just 18 months ago. For Now I Am Winter undoubtedly represents Arnalds’ biggest step so far. It is a transformation in which the form is redolent of what it has succeeded, but one in which something has evolved in the Icelandic musician’s approach. Despite a prolonged process of creation, it is a release which has the full weight of its maker behind it. “I really want to concentrate on this album and I really believe in this album. I think it’s by far the best thing I’ve done. I’m really happy that I made this decision to try something different.” For Arnalds, the concept of evolution and seasonal change is one which has been nearly ever-present in his music. Here it continues both musically and conceptually – Arnalds’ own framework is fulfilled and we hear a personal evolution as a composer and, for the first time, as a songwriter. © Luke Slater, 2013