Today, a new album from Icelandic composer and producer Ólafur Arnalds and the late Irish musician Eoin French, best known as Talos, is announced. Out 11th July, ‘A Dawning’ is a profound meditation on friendship, loss and experimentation — one that began as a collaboration and became a totem of their creative kinship following Talos’ passing last summer.
Alongside the announcement, they share the album’s second single, ‘Signs’, a track that showcases Talos’ voice in its most instinctive form. Anchored in delicate textures and electronic flourishes, ‘Signs’ captures the early stages of their creative journey — morphing and evolving, before direction had been defined, but when the emotional resonance was already undeniable. Listen here.
Ólafur shares, “At its core, ‘Signs’ feels like a coming together, a curious meeting of creative souls. It’s filled with carefree experimentation and exploration. ‘Signs’ was the first song that Eoin and I wrote together. It was only shortly after we became friends and we were rather decisively paired together by our friend Mary Hickson at her music residency in Cork - she seemed very sure that we would get along musically. She was right, of course. It was the start of an incredible, inspiring, heartbreaking but heartfelt journey that took us places we could never have imagined in our wildest dreams. So it feels appropriate that it comes out as we announce this album that became the fruit of that journey.”
‘Signs’ follows the project’s first single ‘We Didn’t Know We Were Ready’, featuring Niamh Regan, Ye Vagabonds and a choir of friends. The track received a powerful televised debut in January on RTÉ’s The Tommy Tiernan Show, where Arnalds and the featured artists were joined by the likes of Dermot Kennedy and The Staves for an emotional live performance of the track.
LIVE:
11 June 2025 - OLT Rivierenhof - Antwerp, BE (with Kiasmos)