'A difficult but really beautiful time': Ólafur Arnalds on working with late Cork musician Talos

The Icelandic musician has released A Dawning, a record made before Eoin French (Talos) passed away in 2024 at the age of 36 

Ólafur Arnalds and Eoin French (Talos) at Sounds from a Safe Harbour in Cork in 2023. Picture: Bríd O'Donovan

It was a match made in heaven. Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds and Cork musician Eoin French, aka Talos, had been talking about doing something together for months. Their respective managements had been trying to get them in the same room together too.

The latter had been a fan of Arnalds for years and was in Iceland to run in the Reykjavik marathon in August 2023. Arnalds invited him to his house. It was like meeting an old friend. The following month, Arnalds was in French’s home town of Cork for the third edition of Sounds from a Safe Harbour, the brainchild of Fermoy woman Mary Hickson.