Kiasmos Wasn't Meant To "Become A Real Project"

Beginning as a private creative reprieve for BAFTA Award-winning composer Ólafur Arnalds and the mastermind of electro-pop outfit Bloodgroup, Janus Rasmussen, Kiasmos wasn't intended to be a public exercise.        

"We've been best friends for many years," Arnalds says of Rasmussen. "If we needed a little bit of break we would just make music together without any pressure, without any decisions — just meet up at the studio and have a good time. But then we would always send these demos to my label and my management, and slowly and slowly they started pushing us more and more to actually make this become a real project. And we were really hesitant at first, because this was our safe haven from the pressure of the normal music business we both already have, so we kind of wanted to keep this project to ourselves and not really release anything or go on tour or anything. I don't know," Arnalds laughs. "We were easily convinced!"

"He creates these other-worldly environments, these places that could never exist in the real world."

Arms twisted, Kiasmos dropped their self-titled debut album late in 2014, garnering universal acclaim for their beautifully minimal instrumental electro experiments created without 'the business' in mind. As it turns out, Arnalds, more used to controlling his own performances from behind a grand piano, was thrilled to take Kiasmos on tour.  

"It felt great actually. For me — especially because I'm not used to playing these kind of shows with dance beats — it's a totally different environment between playing clubs instead of theatres and opera houses, and taking Kiasmos to electronic festivals and clubs... I can see the crowd dancing and screaming, and hands up in the air — it's exhilarating for me, something I'm really not used to," he admits with a dumbfounded chuckle.

Kiasmos are playing six dates in their five-city Australian tour. Although not on the Kiasmos itinerary this time around, Sydney audiences will instead be treated to an Australian-exclusive world premier performance from Arnalds as part of GRAPHIC at the Opera House. 

"We are doing a specially commissioned rearrangement of all of the songs, so even though we're playing some old songs of mine, choosing a bunch of things from my back catalogue, we'll be doing them in arrangements that not even I have heard before. We're working with one of my closest collaborators Viktor [Orri Árnason]," says Arnalds, who'll play two pianos and control a range of electronics in front of a 13-piece chamber orchestra. His re-imagined catalogue will be bolstered by the visual accompaniment of fellow countryman Máni M Sigfússon, known for creating film clips for Iceland's musical elite including Ásgeir, Múm and Bang Gang.

"He creates these other-worldly environments, these places that could never exist in the real world. It's a quite beautiful, surreal imagery that he's creating," Arnalds explains, struggling to find the right words to convey his admiration for the project's collaborators and his nervous excitement for the special performance. "In all, I think it will be a very unique experience."