Chopin Project

Award-winning Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds has premiered the first song from his new album 'The Chopin Project' - a collaboration with German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott - on The Line Of Best Fit.

The track is titled 'Verses', and gives us a taste of what is to come on March 16th, when the album in full will be released.

Arnalds utilised vintage equipment and techniques to create this stunning, melancholy new reimagining of Chopin's work.

"Verses is a new composition by me which uses the famous right hand motif from Piano Sonata No3 (Largo) and is followed by that part of that Sonata in its original version played on the piano by Alice," Arnalds explained to Line Of Best Fit. "So you hear the motif first recomposed arranged for a string quartet and then just a couple of minutes you will hear it in it's original state played on the piano.

"With this I wanted to show listeners quite clearly what I was doing with 'Verses', which they might not realise is composed around a motif from the sonata unless they hear the original sonata next to it."