Just a week before Iceland Airwaves I had the great pleasure of seeing Ólafur Arnalds in my home town at the gorgeous and legendary Palladium venue. It was a magnificent taster of the fabulous music that next week will bring in Reykjavík.

Ólafur was supported by the well-known percusionist Manu Delago (who previously toured with Björk) who played a five song set on an array of kind of chilled-out steel drum instruments. Oli’s set was approximately one and a half hours long. On stage he was joined by a four-piece string section, Manu on live drums and his now famous two self-playing pionos, “I play this one, and then those two go bleep, blop over there”. They weren’t used on every song, but when in use they were kind of mesmerising with their inner workings exposed and facing the audience.

I crudely split Oli’s songs into two. There are quiet ones, just piano and strings, during which it is east and customary to simply drift off and be carried by the music and melody. On the other hand there are the ones that explode with the help of the live and electronic beats, stunning light shows and which sometimes veer towards the techno influence of his other band, Kiasmos. This set had a wonderful balance of both, highlights for me were the new tracks Unfold and Re:member as well as the encore of Lag Fyrir Ömmu solo on the piano.

If you will be at Iceland Airwaves next week, then I thoroughly recommend getting to one of Ólafur’s two shows at the National Theatre (Þjóðleikhúsið), which are at midnight on Thursday and Friday nights.