Hundreds of people showed up in the cold night of February 9th in one of the rarest venues in the city, the beautiful Eglise Saint-Jean-Baptiste, which served as the frame, stage, and shrine to the art and sound of Icelandic composer/musician Ólafur Arnalds.
The show was slow to start with almost 40 minutes of wait time, probably due to the long single line of people waiting to enter the church. The seats were unassigned, so that meant that whoever arrived early had the chance of experiencing the concert much more intimately and without the visual interruption of a sound and a light console.
As everyone waited patiently as if expecting a bride to come down the aisle, the light was turned off, and the pianist entered the transept of the building. The music was starting, and one by one the accompanying instruments joined in, first through sound and then through spotlights shining on them.
The high vaulted ceiling, the adorned columns, the ornate thurible and the old ornate lamps of the centenarian church accentuated the experience for the audience.
Our submissive position in hard pews, our puffy winter jackets and the feeling of not wanting to miss one second or bother any of the strangers sitting around us, made us immerse ourselves in what was happening. We took it all in and letting the music, lights, and the ecclesiastic venue take us into ourselves, our memories, our companions for the night and have a big communal introspective night were the experimental sounds of the nordic multi-instrumentalist put us at ease and transported us to better, and warmer, times.
Ólafur, the metal/hardcore drummer turned composer and revivalist of classical music, released his most recent album Re
Being there, at this temple, witnessing the magic and genius of Ólafur Arnalds unfold right in front of you, binding your soul to this moment for years to come and mooring our minds to an experience that will be hard to match. Not only was the music, the musicians and the lights perfect but a better venue could not have been. The architect of such ecclesiastical buildings, as well as the Icelandic musician, knew very well what they were doing with the grandeur of the ceilings and dreaminess of the notes and their programmed accompaniments.
If you can, do
Review – Ricardo D Flores
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