Dyad 1909

A contemporary dance score for award-winning British choreographerWayne McGregor inspired by Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (1872-1929). 2009 proved quite a year for Iceland's neo-classical export Ólafur Arnalds. Still high on the success of his 7-song series Found Songs, Ólafur was approached by the world-renowned and critically-acclaimed choreographer Wayne McGregor to create a 30-minute score for his ambitious new work Dyad 1909. The dance piece, inspired and created "In The Spirit of Diaghilev," premiered at the Sadler's Wells theater in October 2009 and became an unpredictable and much talked-about 5 nights of live music, dance and visuals. Born in 1987, Ólafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsbær, just outside of Reykjavík. He has immersed himself completely in a world of delicate symphonic compositions, generating near weightless orchestral pieces. Arnalds explores the crossover from classical to pop by mixing chamber strings and piano with discreet electronics. This young artist is steadily gaining recognition worldwide since his 2007 debut Eulogy For Evolution and the 2008 follow-up EP Variations Of Static. In April 2009, online experiment Found Songsreceived more than 200,000 downloads via foundsongs.erasedtapes.com and the physical edition was an instant best-seller, demonstrating that music in its physical format still attains a particular charm. "It's an amazing piece of music — it's melancholic and spatial then cuts to extreme rhythmic violence — it's hauntingly inspiring.