Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm – Collaborative Works

Individually, Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm have been making some of the finest ambient, neoclassical music of the past decade, seemingly relentlessly and at will. Both have demonstrated a collaborative bent in the past (special nod to Frahm’s stellar 9Fingers with Anne Muller from 2010) and in recent weeks, the Icelander and German have together accelerated their prolific, collegiate natures.

Collaborative Works is a double album, collating four EPs the pair have recorded and the soundtrack of a live visual show, Trance Frendz. While the EPs are peppered with beauty and some surprising snippets of glitch, it’s disc two that thrills most. Trance Frendz is an improvised masterpiece, showing why these two young composers are often cited as the vanguard of the nebulous classical indie scene. There’s much to love here, and many subtleties that will escape the casual listener, but which will keep unravelling and revealing themselves to those willing to dedicate the headspace. [Finbarr Bermingham]