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KIASMOS

Kiasmos

Kiasmos - 10th Anniversary Edition

    Kiasmos is Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds and Faroese musician Janus Rasmussen.

    Ten years on from the release of their seminal self-titled album, Kiasmos celebrate with a limited edition pressing on blue vinyl. The pressing is limited to 2000 for the world. The album, which has been streamed over 100 million times on Spotify alone, has become an essential album in electronic music and has since gone on to inspire artists around the world.

    After a successful campaign surrounding the follow up album (“II”) earlier this year, now seems like a great time to reflect on where it all started: with two friends experimenting and having fun in the studio together.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Lit
    2. Held
    3. Looped
    4. Swayed
    5. Thrown
    6. Dragged 
    7. Bent
    8. Burnt

    Kiasmos

    II

      Kiasmos – Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds and Faroese musician Janus Rasmussen – are returning, renewed and restored, with II. The triumphant follow-up to their universally acclaimed self-titled debut in 2014, which re-envisioned minimal techno with orchestral flourishes and weightless production. They’d made most of that album in just two weeks; this time it’s been 10 years. The making of II was a test of their friendship, but also testament to how great musical chemistry can always go the distance and be just the same as it ever was.

      They worked on a lot of II during the lost year of 2020-2021, including a trip to Ólafur’s studio in Bali. “We spent a month there and wrote a few songs that ended up on the record,” says Janus. The pair sampled traditional Balinese percussion like the gamelan and incorporated Janus’s field recordings of their natural surroundings – the sound of birds, crickets and, on standout track ‘Dazed’, echoing the sunrise over the lush landscape.

      Kiasmos have an enviable knack for conveying complex emotions and evocative visuals with instrumental music. But this time they’ve got more experience as producers to draw on. The album’s expansiveness can be linked to Ólafur’s intervening years as a Grammy-nominated composer and prominent soundtracker in film and TV. And they’ve subtly shifted from four-to-the-floor to the frenetic broken beats of UK dance music, experimenting more with BPMs, echoing Janus’s time spent DJing in major venues worldwide. There are still those aching melodies that fans know and love but they’re catchier too: tracks like ‘Laced’ and ‘Bound’ have an irresistible, elastic bounce beneath the ethereal palette.

      “We just want to make electronic music that there isn’t so much of right now,” says Janus, “to take you on a great journey that is a little bit unconventional.” “You have to develop into a new space,” Ólafur adds. But they had to impose limits, too, to keep them both on track and make something memorable. Often Ólafur would refuse to move on to the next idea until they’d perfected a chord progression or beat, to help them stay focused and forge, he says, a “deep understanding of what the song is.”

      “II is livelier,” says Janus, “but it still retains the signature Kiasmos style of transitioning from a whisper-quiet ambience to an explosive dance beat that can blow your socks off.”

      STAFF COMMENTS

      Barry says: I know i'm not the only one to be eager to hear another Kiasmos LP, it's been FAR too long for one of the most emotive projects in modern electronic music. 'II' is once again a gorgeously flowing, triumphantly beautiful cascade of crips, crystalline percussion and rich, sumptuous bass. II shows that Kiasmos are here to stay. Let's not leave it too long next time eh?

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Grown
      2. Burst
      3. Sailed
      4. Laced
      5. Bound
      6. Sworn
      7. Spun
      8. Flown
      9. Told
      10. Dazed
      11. Squared

      Kiasmos

      Blurred EP

        Kiasmos mark their return in 2017 with a new 12” EP titled Blurred — available worldwide on October 6th via Erased Tapes.

        Since their 2015 Swept EP, the duo have been performing shows extensively across the world. After writing and recording together in their native Iceland this year, the pair will be bringing a glimpse of light to a particularly gloomy time of year as their light sounds are brighter than ever.

        Words from Ólafur and Janus, August 2017:
        “To write new material felt like a new beginning for us after two years of touring. The plan was to write something a tad darker than our previous stuff. Spring in Reykjavík had other plans though, as this turned out to be our brightest release to date.” - Janus Rasmussen.

        “Stimming was one of the reasons we started making four-on-the-floor music and we have been listening to Bonobo since we were young, so it was a great honour that they wanted to contribute remixes for the EP.” - Ólafur Arnalds.

        The EP closes with remixes from British producer Bonobo and German electronic musician Stimming, taking tracks Blurred and Paused into different coloured realms.

        The cover art featuring the iconic Kiasmos symbol is by long-time Erased Tapes collaborator Torsten Posselt at FELD.

        TRACK LISTING

        A1. Shed
        A2. Blurred
        A3. Blurred (Bonobo Remix)
        B1. Jarred
        B2. Paused
        B3. Paused (Stimming Remix)

        Kiasmos

        Swept EP

          Following on from their Record Store Day "Looped EP" release, which featured remixes by Dauwd and Lubomyr Melnyk, Kiasmos – made up of Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen – return with three new tracks and a remix by Tale Of Us. Recorded in various locations including Reykjavík and Berlin, the EP opens with "Drawn", a four-minute percussion fuelled track with gentle piano motifs. "Gaunt" features the addition of ambient synths and a drum loop, underpinned by slow-moving chords. Title track "Swept" which the duo offered to fans as a surprise gift in form of a free download card at previous show dates, showcases a more club-oriented beat structure alongside Kiasmos’ signature emotive instrumentation. Closing the EP is a remix from Berlin-based duo Tale of Us who met Kiasmos in London and twist the original downbeat title track into their distinctively dark aesthetic. Pulsating hats and a driving bass loop add pace as the track builds toward an epic breakdown.

          Kiasmos (Ólafur Arnalds And Janus Rasmussen)

          Kiasmos

            Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen finally release their unique Nordic electronic sounds in album size

            After dropping several tracks and performing at select festivals throughout the years, Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen dedicated the year 2014 to explore the area in-between Ólafur’s more acoustic, piano-based solo work and Janus’s synth-heavy electro pop, with their collaborative electronic project Kiasmos.

            By focusing solely on their self-titled debut album, Ólafur and Janus have been able to combine and further develop their unique sound aesthetics to complete an album driven by their mutual love for electronic music. Made in Ólafur’s newly build studio in Reykjavík, Iceland, a majority of the album was recorded using acoustic instruments next to a variety of synthesisers, drum machines and tape delays. It features a live drummer, string quartet and Ólafur performing on the grand piano, producing an ambient, textured sound, which makes it a perfect home listen and equally danceable record. If you listen closely, you can spot them record the thumb piano, finger snapping and even the sound of the metal grinder of a lighter slowly to replace the usual electronic hi-hat sounds, giving the album a far more intimate and unique atmosphere.

            “We decided to start almost completely over with this record, so most of the material is written this year with the idea of making a record that can stand as one piece rather than a collection of songs. I am very excited to get a proper record out exploring a different territory than I am used to. I touch a lot on electronic genres in my own music but never have the opportunity to go full out electronic like we do here.” – Ólafur Arnalds

            “The Kiasmos project has been around since 2007, but because of all our other projects we never really got the time to sit down and write all the tracks we always wanted to. So when we early this year finally found the time to sit down and make a full length album there was so much we wanted to try out. The result surprised us a bit, it's deeper and more emotional than we imagined it to be, but that's the beauty of being able to make an album.” – Janus Rasmussen

            Long-term Erased Tapes graphics collaborator Torsten Posselt at Feld Studios in Berlin created the cover artwork. Feld Studios was a natural choice for Kiasmos, seeing he also designed the cover for their Thrown EP, released previously.

            Kiasmos is made up of Icelandic BAFTA-winning composer Ólafur Arnalds, known for his unique blend of minimal piano and string compositions with electronic sounds, and Janus Rasmussen from the Faroe Islands, known as the mastermind of the electro-pop outfit Bloodgroup. Based in Reykjavík, Arnalds used to work as a sound engineer, often for Rasmussen's other projects, where the two musicians discovered their common love for minimal, experimental music. They eventually became best friends, often hanging out in their studio, exploring electronic sounds.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. Lit
            2. Held
            3. Looped
            4. Swayed
            5. Thrown
            6. Dragged
            7. Bent
            8. Burnt


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