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Iceland’s experimental composer Ólafur Arnalds has been a busy man as of late; most recently, he recorded and released an EP recorded live in his living room. Another Happy Day is the soundtrack to an independent film by Sam Levinson. His soundtrack consists mainly of short pieces of piano and violin, recalling the works of Satie, with a hint of atmospherics not unlike Nick Cave‘s soundtrack to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Not having seen the film, it’s hard to know how these pieces work in relation to their placement, but it’s probably a safe bet to assume that the film is a melancholy one; these works ebb and flow with an undeniable sadness and a melodic similarity that oft punctuates soundtrack scores. Yet the simple beauty of pieces like “The Wait” and “Autumn Day,” and the short trilogy of brief pieces “Through the Screen,” “Before the Calm,” and “Lynn’s Theme” make the soundtrack a pleasant standalone listening experience.
