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Artist: Gabriel Olafs
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Gabriel Olafs:

Orchestral Works w/ Reykjavik Orkestra, VOA

Gabríel Ólafs has fallen in love with the orchestra. “The way this collective of amazing players becomes one is awesome,” he says, “there’s nothing like hearing a symphony orchestra play.” Marking five years as a professional composer and recording artist, Ólafs’ latest album dives right into this inspiring world. Orchestral Works features orchestral arrangements of thirteen of his favorite pieces, but it’s far from being a simple “best of”. “It’s very much a standalone work based on my best melodies, themes and motifs,” he says, “I created a new work from them. I followed what made me excited. In my opinion, it’s my best album yet.”

The Icelandic pianist and composer, 25, whose music has been streamed over 200 million times, had a wealth of pieces on his three solo albums to choose from. The opening Melodia Suite begins, aptly, with the work that set him on his creative path at just 14, the waltzing Absent Minded. It’s completed by one of his most popular pieces, the richly melodic Filma, from his album Piano Works. There’s a nod to his passion for film in the cinematic orchestral work Fantasía, from Lullabies, but at the heart of the album is music from Solon Islandus, Ólafs’ homage to Icelandic culture and his Decca Records US debut. “The goal was to turn it into a symphony,” he explains. “It’s my Symphony No. 1.”

Gabriel Olafs:

Lullabies for Piano and Cello

Lullabies soundtrack the most formative season of our development. For centuries, parents have hummed them to children as either a salve to ease stress, a natural aid to trigger sleep, or a simple reminder that all will be well in the world once morning comes. Imprinted upon our memories and carried within our hearts for lifetimes, we pass them from one generation to the next. Icelandic composer and artist Gabríel Ólafs continues this tradition on his 2023 album, Lullabies for Piano and Cello [Decca Records US]. After generating over 100 million streams for his original instrumental compositions and earning widespread international acclaim, he summons the spirit of timeless Icelandic lullabies with a twist of his own magic.

“Lullabies encapsulate both history and nostalgia,” he explains. “When I’m writing music, nostalgia is my favorite feeling to capture. It’s a complex emotion, because it evokes both sadness and happiness at the same time. I also like to keep things simple—and lullabies certainly are. They’re based on melody first, which is always big for me.”

Gabríel’s uncanny melodic sensibility has elevated him to the forefront of contemporary classical music. Following years of writing and performing, he gained international renown with Absent Minded in 2019 followed by Piano Works a year later, hailed by PopMatters as “a testament to the power of melody and mood.” 2022’s Solon Islandus marked his debut for Decca Records US,  Atwood Magazine described standout track “The Drifter” as “beautifully tender and achingly visceral.”

Gabriel Olafs:

Solon Islandus

An ambitious concept album and transmedia project that pays homage to the artistic spirit of the people of Iceland, Ólafs’ major label debut is a work of personal discovery—an exploration of the artistry, culture and place that has shaped Gabríel’s identity. The record draws inspiration from the writing of one of Iceland’s great poets, Davíð Stefánsson, in melodic works for piano, ensemble and choir with spoken word elements.

Ólafs was read Stefánsson’s poems as a child by both his father and grandfather, and he especially fell in love with his earliest poetry collection, Black Feathers (Svartar Fjaðrir), published one hundred years earlier when the poet was the same age as Ólafs when he was making the new album. While recording, Ólafs would read the poems and try to capture their essence in melody.

The title Solon Islandus comes from Stefánsson’s only novel, the tragic tale of a real-life Icelandic drifter, Sölvi Helgason. A composer with a longstanding love of film, Ólafs takes a “directorial” view of composition—creating motifs and themes to represent characters and emotions. “Tracks like ‘The Drifter’ and ‘Júlíana’ are inspired by characters from the novel,” says Ólafs. “It’s almost as if this was a movie, and these are their themes.”

While influenced by a particular quiet and delicate Icelandic sound verging on minimalist, Ólafs is especially drawn to melodies. “Tchaikovsky, Morricone, John Williams, they can all write a good melody. Nothing really compares.” Working at his piano, Ólafs always begins with melodies, recording the results with voice memos on his phone. “I have maybe 200 of them,” Ólafs notes. For Solon Islandus, he tried to simplify his melodies as much as possible. “I wanted to match the poems, which are straight to the point, straight to the heart,” he explains. 

Gabríel Ólafs was only 14 when he wrote the song that landed him his first record deal, which saw his first album, Absent Minded, released on an independent label five years later. His tracks have since been streamed tens of millions of times online; his music is, writes PopMatters, “brimming with beauty.”