Ólafur Arnalds Cells

"Cells constantly surprises me with little melodies that get created within the random intervals, often inspiring new melodies that I then take over to other instruments." 
– Ólafur Arnalds

Moving beyond the realm of a typical sample library, Cells is our latest collaboration with Ólafur Arnalds, one of Iceland’s foremost musicians, with a career spanning over a decade as a recording artist, live performer, and composer. Ólafur has received 3 GRAMMY nominations over his career, also winning a BAFTA for Best Original Music for the series "Broadchurch" and receiving an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for "Defending Jacob." 

Cells is a collaborative tool that enables composers and producers to harness the power of a string orchestra and get the feeling of players responding as if they are in the same room as the composer. In addition there is a toolkit of vintage analogue synths with a variety of signal paths created and performed by Ólafur to embrace this same collaborative power.

Scale Mode - the essence of collaboration

At the heart of Cells is Scale Mode. It provides harmonic movement that follows the composer’s tonality to create chance encounters and inspiration. This process seeks to build a connection where the composer's ideas and the expertise of the players can come together to create something truly special. Ólafur workshopped and created the mini performances that comprise the building blocks of Cells. When combined with the powerful Scale Mode technology they create a playground for creativity allowing for a level of control and inspiration that has not previously been possible.

From a spark to a composition with colour and depth

Spitfire Audio’s software engineers have extended the functionality of Scale Mode to add a new ‘Played’ mode. This enables the engine to detect what key or tonality the user is playing, allowing real-time control of the selected intervals that the engine will provide as options. Cells creates a space where unpredictability, decision making and harmony converge.

Move away from the intimidating blank canvas

From the creative mind of Ólafur Arnalds, Cells frees composers from the daunting prospect of the blank canvas when working on a new project and instead helps provide new ideas at the touch of a key. With intuitive responses to keys and scales, Cells avoids obstructing workflows and instead enables ideas to develop as and when they come.

SinfoniaNord - Hof Cultural Center

Recorded with SinfoniaNord who specialise in orchestral recordings for film, TV and the music industry. Previously working with Ólafur for his latest Kiasmos record in the same studio - Hof Cultural Center in Akureyri, Iceland.

SinfoniaNord helped craft the rich emotional performances, detailed at every stage by Ólafur.