Album Review: Ólafur Arnalds & Talos, A Dawning

A Dawning is a collaborative album between Icelandic composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Ólafur Arnalds, and the late Irish singer-songwriter Talos (Eoin French). Their creative kinship blazes across this elemental and beautiful record, created before Talos’ passing and then finished by Arnalds.

Indonesian singer-songwriter Sandrayati lends a ghostly vocal to the incredibly delicate ‘Bedrock’, whilst English folk musician Alexi Murdoch drawls deftly about “nights that came before my time” on the almost-breathed ‘Borrowed Time’. ‘We Didn’t Know We Were Ready’, meanwhile, features Niamh Regan, Ye Vagabonds and a choir of friends, in another highlight of this beautiful ode to Talos.

Title track ‘A Dawning’ – a curious alloy of electronica and classical – magnificently cedes and plays with space, while other standouts include the sublime fragility of ‘West Cork’ and the piano-driven ‘For Steph’. Notably, a special one-off concert, 'Remembering Talos', will also be held in Cork Opera House on September 11, as part of the Sounds From A Safe Harbour festival.

8/10

Out now