Ólafur Arnalds - and we’ll leave it there… (feat. Ella McRobb)

I found Ella on a Sunday doom-scroll, being a little curious about all the people who had used an improvised piano clip I had posted a few weeks earlier in their own content.

Amidst all the noise I found Ella's video and her mesmerising voice over my improvisation just floored me. After I had listened to it about 30 times I decided to just get in touch. A couple of weeks later she was on a plane to Iceland where we finished the song and filmed the video.

A beautiful reminder of what social media can really bring to creativity.

•

•

Directed by Álfheiður Marta

DOP: Anni Ólafsdóttir
AC: Tómas Sturluson
Editor: Guðlaugur Andri Eyþórsson
Additional Footage: Ella McRobb, Joe Doherty, Ólafur Arnalds
Stylist: Sigrún Ásta Jörgensen
Grade: Bjarki Guðjónsson for Trickshot
Producer: Árni Þór Árnason

Strings:
Pétur Björnsson
Sigrún Harðardóttir
Vera Panitch
Karl Pestka
Unnur Jónsdóttir
Borgar Magnason

Special thanks:
KUKL
Trickshot
Mercury KX
Sven Hasenjäger
Joe Doherty & Gravity Inc
Hafsteinn Þráinsson
Dagbjört Ósk Gunnarsdóttir

#ólafurarnalds #olafurarnalds #piano #musicvideo #duet #mercurykx

[ella.mcrobb]

It was an absolutely magical experience to write this song with you!

[naveedetemadipour]

Settle down don’t say a word
It’s all been said before
It’s too late now
There’s a weight upon my chest
That wasn’t there before
It lives here now

And it hurts oh it hurts so bad
And I know that I don’t deserve that

So when I open my eyes in the morning
And you’re not there
It’ll be you in my heart that I’m holding
And you won’t care

So let’s leave it there.

The sparks that used to fly
Are burning on my skin
Fading into nothing

And all the time we had for us
Is going with the wind

Can someone let the light in?

It hurts oh it hurts so bad
And I know that I don’t deserve that

So when I open my eyes in the morning
And you’re not there
It’ll be you in my heart that I’m holding
And you won’t care

So when my lungs cannot breath anymore
And I’m laying there
It’ll be you in my heart that I’m holding
And you won’t care

So let’s leave it there.

[DaveG]

Last year my father passed away. He wasn’t an easy man - opinionated, stubborn and generally difficult to be around. This song came out at just the right time, as despite all of that his passing hit me hard and although the lyrics speak more to a breakup they speak to me. That line “When I open my eyes in the morning and you’re not there…” and somehow “Let’s just leave it there…” connects to all the times we were close to huge arguments and I’d back down to keep the relationship.

Just beautiful.

[SharonGarrison-qy]

Thank you both for this incredible collaboration. I found your piece on 11/21/23, two days after from hearing of my son's accidental fentanyl overdose. A day and night of unending crying, then lying nearly comatose and I finally had to get out of that house. So I drove...I barely avoided driving off the road and into the marsh from a panic attack, sitting in the car in the rain, screaming my lungs out and writhing in grief. It was that bad. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see in front of me, I clung to the steering wheel, hunched over it as I cried. I was so wrung out and desperately trying to climb out of that abyss of heart rending agony. I wanted to be done with it all; it hurt, shattered, tore me. I needed to do something else or I knew I would do harm...so I turned to the thing that always feeds my soul and remakes me; music.

In a choked and croaky voice I asked Siri to find me dark, haunting music and a list of songs appeared on my Apple music playlist page. I chose the first one. This one. I listened to it for hours. I cried more, then listened to it again. I just lay there in my seat and listened to it over and over. I listened anytime I felt the grief rising to overwhelm me. Your song began to mend a raw, jagged tear in my soul. It's spare, melodic, lilting, soft and light enough to penetrate the darkness and it resonates so deeply. When Ella belts "So when my lungs cannot breathe anymore in, and I've laid it bare...." in that angst-ridden tone, it broke me. Then pieced me back together somehow. Olafur...your lyrics hit it spot on, you WROTE my pain and allowed me to begin to see it differently so I could live. So I could Function. It is a beautiful, haunting composition. It belongs to my son Brennan and I now. Thank you. Thank you. Brennan Jay Boyd...my first love. My son. My best friend. I will love you to the edges of infinity and then beyond and without end. Mama.

[ZachSprowls]

This song wrecks me. The songwriting, the performance, the production, the arranging, the filming, the story. Olafur's done it again.

[olemann]

My 190lbs giant newfie dog passed today .... the emptiness he leaves after sharing every day with me the last 9, 5 years, is huge.
I already hate tomorrow.. when i wake up and ur nor there

[valentinevansteenbergen]

I was broken up with by the person that felt like the love of my life about a month ago. I had been trying to heal, but I still had been dreaming about her every night. I hadn't seen her untill today when she came up to me in the gym and asked if I was ok. We talked and it was kinda nice. I felt she had moved on and didn't care anymore and I knew it was going to be a gutpunch when I got home. This song really resonates me and eventhough it makes me cry, that's exactly what I need going through this..

[jrb]

I can't believe this. Social media is so beautiful sometimes. Faith in humanity restored.

[karencarty]

Olafur and Ella, you both probably know that all of us would love more songs made from the Magic that you both created here... We all vote for that!

[LaupaireOfficial]

Ólafur and Ella please do a whole album together ❤❤❤❤

[lucianphotography]

Quite simply... Perfection, from the playing, the melody and Ella's voice. It's a match made in Heaven. I hope to hear more from you both. You two are the BEST.

[aniawalczak]

Creating music is pouring out your soul, opening your heart. I know it first hand. Creating music took me through my darkest days

[AndromedaX]

I already loved the original improvisation but I didn't know we would actually get a full version of this song. This is such a beautiful story and the full song sounds incredible!

[NightOwlAmbient]

Every time I hear this song a movie starts playing in my head. There just so much emotion in the words and the performance that it cries out to be combined with a visual story.

[dimmsart]

Damn... This girl deserves the brightest future. Such a brilliant talent. Thanks Ólafur for discovering it for us!

[guitaroffice]

So beautiful, a massive wave of LOVE !

[ComposerAnnaKamaro]

I found so many musicians to cooperate through the Internet, it is amazing how our paths cross sometimes through the beauty of voice, piano, guitar, violin.... I have never really met any of my music soulmate who participated in my music. We are like blind people, sometimes we see no faces, hear no voices, but we hear each other's music and we are immediately in love with it.

Your music is so touching... I am definitely in love with this intimate conversation you both created....

[heman_lee]

After 12 months of incredible music being released this year by so many different artists, this is the song of the year for me. Such incredible, subtle vulnerability in the songwriting and the composition. Ella's vocal performance perfectly blended in together with the amazing string and piano arrangement of this song and is just the epitome of what a well crafted song should be like. Kudos to everyone involved in this project for making music that actually makes people feel things. Much love

[BreeCC]

Going from not knowing each other
To meeting on the internet
To plane flights to meet irl
And being surrounded by Olafur's music
...
"And I open my eyes in the morning, and you're not there"
...
"And all the time we had for us is going with the wind"
...
This is just so pure...

[richardprue]

Heard this tonight for the first time and im blown away by the sheer beauty and song craft found in this song.