Dyad 1909

A contemporary dance score for award winning British choreographer Wayne McGregor inspired by Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (1872-1929). 'My composer for Dyad, Icelandic musician Ólafur Arnalds, is coming in next week to finish work on the score. It s an amazing piece of music it's melancholic and spatial then cuts to extreme rhythmic violence - it's hauntingly inspiring' Wayne McGregor (Random Dance) 2009 has already proved quite a year for Iceland s neo-classical export Ólafur Arnalds. Still high on the success of his 7-song series Found Songs recording a song a day for 7 days and instantly making each track available via Twitter; Ólafur was approached by the world renowned and critically acclaimed choreographer Wayne McGregor to create a 30-minute score for his ambitious new work Dyad 1909 . The dance piece, inspired and created In The Spirit of Diaghilev premiered at the Sadler s Wells theatre this October and became an unpredictable and much talked about 5-nights of live music, dance and visuals. This fascinating collaboration (Guardian) will go on a EU-wide tour this autumn with Arnalds included in an impressive creative line-up alongside visual artists and filmmakers Jane and Louise Wilson. In December Ólafur s evocative and lyrical score (The Times) will see a 10 vinyl, CD and digital release via Erased Tapes the label behind his previous releases as well as Peter Broderick s recent and much noted dance score release Music For Falling From Trees . Born in 1987, Ólafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsbær, just a few kilometres outside of Reykjavík. He has immersed himself completely in a world of delicate symphonic compositions generating near weightless orchestral pieces. Arnalds explores the crossover from classical to pop by mixing chamber strings and piano with discreet electronics which makes him a perfect fit for cinematic pop label Erased Tapes. His motivations are clear: The classical scene is kind of closed to people who haven't been studying music all their lives. I would like to bring my classical influence to the people who don't usually listen to this kind of music open people's minds. This young artist is steadily gaining recognition worldwide since his 2007 debut 'Eulogy for Evolution' and the 2008 follow-up EP Variations of Static . In April 2009 online experiment Found Songs received more than 200,000 downloads via foundsongs.erasedtapes.com and the physical edition released this August has instantly become a best seller, demonstrating that music in its physical format still attains a particular charm. Ólafur conceived Found Songs as a way to collate several lost and found musical sketches and ideas in a 'very challenging, but fun' series. The experiment offers its listeners an intimate insight into Ólafur Arnalds creative world with artwork contributions from fans via Flickr. With the next full-length release due in 2010, Found Songs hasn t just inspired 2-D work.