Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds and Irish singer-songwriter Eoin French (Talos) weave a hauntingly intimate final chapter in their eight‑track collaboration, A Dawning. The album marks an extraordinary journey — born during a 2023 Cork residency, blossoming amidst soaring creative chemistry in Reykjavík, and concluded with poignant devotion following French’s passing. Arnalds, navigating grief and friendship, carries Talos’s lingering voice and spirit forward as a living co‑creator.
From the opening Shared Time to the tear‑tinted We Didn’t Know We Were Ready, every moment resonates with elegiac grace. Piano-drenched laments like Bedrock and love-letter For Steph are underscored by aeriform strings and gentle electronics. Critics laud the album’s emotional dexterity — Financial Times highlights its “poignant meditation on loss”; Irish Times applauds the duo’s seamless merging; Treblezine affirms its “restrained emotion” akin to A Moon‑Shaped Pool; aggregated reviews average around 80/100, labeling it “somber” yet beautifully fragile.
There is no mawkishness here — instead a respectful intimacy. Arnalds enacts French’s vision, honoring his high, ethereal voice while gently guiding textures to completion. The result is a moving portrait of friendship, loss, and creative unity — a testament to music’s power to transcend absence. With emotional currents cast in minimalist brilliance, A Dawning is a luminous farewell that lingers long after the final note.
