Ólafur Arnalds has long held a primary position in my listening library. Moving from pop to become one of the leading lights of the current neo-classical, or pop classical, every now and then one of his works will draw me repeatedly to listen. His compositions are a masterclass in delicate balance, marrying strings and electronics in a subtle dance.
A New Collaboration With Spitfire Audio
His latest collab with Spitfire (see our Chamber Evolution review to learn more about his previously released libraries) draws upon what is now decades of expertise in that particular musical world to create a library that reflects his sound, and even pushes the boundaries of what can be possible. I love that he has said he uses it to create new ideas for his own work.
Cells is a textural and atmospheric library that draws upon the subtle rhythms and melodies of a chamber orchestra that may be improvising with the conductor in a studio setting. You as a composer have some control over the beautiful sound that is created, enabling you to shape it slightly to fit your work.
So, How Does This Ólafur Arnalds STRINGS: Cells Work?
Cells is established upon a diatonic scale system. You can choose a key and select a scale from among 25 or so standard major/minor/modal fair. Or you can choose the notes you wish to include by clicking on the graphic piano octave notes. Or you can choose to switch to the ‘Played’ mode, where the plugin interprets what notes you’re playing and establishes a key and scale based upon that.
From there you can select either from a ton of presets, or you can choose from one of 14 ‘cells’ – each a box with opaquely descriptive terms such as ‘scatter’ or ‘motion’.
Immediately upon playing and flicking through presets and cells, I re-discovered the world of Arnalds. Of course, a collaboration with Spitfire means the recorded and edited sound is absolutely impeccable. It sounds like the strings are on a medium sized stage. But the attention to the detail of the recorded sound; the flickering harmonics, dancing strings and hiss of Rosin on bow is just breathtaking to listen to, and is the Arnalds influence.
This string library is not about sweeping melodies, Huge romantic walls of sound, or especially fast, pizzicato and marcato runs. It is about texture and atmosphere. Quite a niche sound in fact. But it does it incredibly well. Long, slow chords unfold with internal movement and timbre change that draw the listener in.
The selection of cells, presets, and the velocity you play at, affects both the intensity and the scope of the internal movement and timbre. Most of the cells have 3 velocity layers. The ‘Motion’ cell for example, has unison when played quietly, a Medium velocity plays sparse intervals, and heavy velocity changes the feel totally to drunken glissando intervals. The timbre of the string sound shifts as you play heavier, with the intervals moving from light flickers to slower more defined tones. Furthermore the intervals played by the plugin are only selected from the ones chosen initially with choice of scale and note.
The variety of timbral and tonal change is subtle, but truly immense, demanding a good amount of time playing with the instrument and learning the sounds it is capable of.
Beyond The Chamber Strings
Ólafur Arnalds STRINGS: Cells also offers synth pads, bass drones, and resamplings of strings to create granular textures and other varieties of tones that compliment and differ from the string ensemble sound without too sharp a timbral contrast. Again this is very much Arnalds fingerprint, with his use of subtle electronics to take the neoclassical sound into more modern territory
The plugin also comes with some useful modulation and tonal shaping possibilities that differ slightly depending on the preset or sounds that you’ve chosen. These include expression, envelopes, reverb, timbral variation options, and spatial control of the signal.
Conclusion: A New Voice in Strings
Ólafur Arnalds’ STRINGS: Cells encompasses the sound of Arnalds work extremely effectively. I would say that if somewhat transcends the definition of a mere string library, and is more an instrument in its own right. I’ve used it on several projects now, and rather than complementing what is already there, I’ve found that it often leads the direction that the music goes. That to me is a strong sign of a powerful instrument.
As with all instruments, there are elements about it that I feel could be improved – I really liked the idea of the plugin reading what you played, and interpreting it to limit the note choice. But I didn’t find it very accurate, and found it a bit fiddly to adjust.
My only other thought is that it’s a niche instrument. If you’re looking for a bog standard string library, this is not the one for you. But for the neo classical, ambient, film composer crowd – this library will be essential for you!
Olafur Arnalds Cells Costs £199
More info here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/olafur-arnalds-cells
