ANOTHER HAPPY DAY

Olafur Arnalds is among a growing list of contemporary classical composers who are turning to soundtrack work as a vehicle for greater exposure while retaining their signature sound.

Phillip Glass is the standard-bearer, with a resume of mainstream scores as diverse as Candyman, The Hours,

Dracula and The Illusionist, all of which are instantly identifiable as his with their unfettered piano-based orchestral minimalism.

Although yet to show his hand as a composer, former Pop Will Eat Itself vocalist Clint Mansell popularised the post-rock electronica approach with his portentous and churning soundtracks for The Fountain and Requiem For A Dream and his audacious adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake for Black Swan.

Their successes have opened the doors to Hollywood for nontraditionalists such as Max Richter and Arnalds, who was commissioned to write the theme music to acclaimed TV series Broadchurch, to make seriously good stand-alone music.

Another Happy Day, Arnalds’ 2012 soundtrack to the Sam Levinson movie, is not among his best work but it does offer him the chance to explore bolder rhythmic themes which grip listeners in a quietly compelling and yearning emotional headlock.

The opening theme The Land Of Nod is Arnalds at his best – a recurring minor chord piano melody and violin set the emotional and visual landscape, which is drawn into and eventually swallowed up by the kind of post-industrial wash more associated with Mogwai.

That is the first hint of Arnalds experimenting with different approaches to texture.

It occurs again on closer Everything Must Change, which is rhythmically driven by plucked strings and swarming synthesisers, edgy loops and an operatic vocal drone that carries the weight of sorrow.

Like much of Arnalds’ work up until recently, Another Happy Day, has relied on word of mouth for its audience.

One suspects after Broadchurch that will change.