Spitfire Audio – Ólafur Arnalds Stratus £249

> BAFTA award-winning Ólafur Arnalds is back with another collection of organic and engaging Kontakt-based audio content extruded through a custom GUI. Stratus, subtitled ‘The Piano, Reimagined’, is based around 15GB of audio derived from piano and synth sources that are played back using algorithmic sequencing principles to create complicated overlaid patterns, and with some of the audio based around full recorded performances. The original impetus for this came from nerve damage that Ólafur sustained in a car accident that left one of his hands limited in what it could play, and his subsequent development of a ’robot writing partner’ based around two computer controlled player pianos.

The core of the eight main instrument instances provided is a 8x8 matrix, that determines what pattern is played by the incoming notes, and with the ability to specify overall polyphony, loop patterns, and choose to have them evolve over time. There are also five effects through which the audio can pass, though even before it gets to these the results are beautiful. The interface encourages tweaking, even if the results are, by their nature, unpredictable. However, this is a positive attribute, and testament to the creativity that obviously went into creating the real-life hardware setup on which it was developed and subsequently performed.

Whilst certainly not cheap, the quality is once again very high.

Bruce Aisher spitfireaudio.com VERDICT 9.0