Lucid hymn to intuition -
A collaboration that feels inevitable
Some pairings arrive with the calm assurance of fate. Icelandic composer-producer Ólafur Arnalds and Swedish vocalist-performer Loreen meet in SAGES as if they’ve been orbiting the same star for years—two artists obsessed with honesty, atmosphere, and the felt sense that music is a guide rather than a product. In interviews they frame the project as a response to a world moving too fast for stillness; SAGES, they suggest, is an invitation to slow down and listen inward.
What SAGES is—and when it arrived
SAGES launched in two movements. First came the double-single “In the Sound of Breathing / Opening” on March 7, 2025, a quiet announcement of intent that blended Arnalds’ weightless piano-and-electronic textures with Loreen’s devotional glow. Two weeks later, on March 21, 2025, a three-track EP—“SAGES”—landed via Mercury KX, running a concise 15 minutes and sequencing “In the Sound of Breathing,” “Unknowing,” and “Opening.”
The sound: minimalism with a pulse
Arnalds has long balanced intimacy and scope, but SAGES pushes him further into glass-clear spaciousness: sub-bass as a heartbeat, synths like vapour, piano lines that arrive one deliberate breath at a time. Loreen answers with vocals that float between mantra and prayer—close-miked, almost whispered at the edges, then rising into radiant belts that never break the project’s meditative seal. The result is music that feels both private and cinematic, carrying the stillness of a midnight chapel and the scale of a wide-angle landscape.
“In the Sound of Breathing” is the gateway: a slow build that treats breath as rhythm and refrain. Its language of “opening” and “believing” reads like a spiritual field note, and Loreen’s phrasing turns repetition into revelation. By contrast, “Unknowing” holds the EP’s most immediate melodic hook—an ember-warm chorus that resolves to silence rather than spectacle. And “Opening” stretches to nearly eight minutes, a patient arc that begins as an instrumental meditation (originally an Arnalds sketch) and blooms as Loreen enters, more presence than protagonist.
The film: when music moves the body
SAGES is as visual as it is sonic. Director Thora Hilmars’ short film—starring Loreen, with Arnalds in a cameo—ties the EP to the strange history of the “dancing plague” of 1518 in Strasbourg, when people reportedly danced for days, some to collapse. The duo updates that phenomenon as a parable of release: are the dancers ill, or free? In Hilmars’ hands, movement becomes the body’s argument for liberation, mirroring the way these tracks unspool—minimal elements loosening into trance.
Themes: guidance, freedom, and the inner compass
The name SAGES points to mentors—seen and unseen—and to a practice of listening to what guides you. Across the project, faith isn’t doctrinal; it’s embodied. Breath is both subject and score. The writing circles ideas of belonging and boundaries, asking whether identity is something you defend or something you dissolve into. That’s why the music refuses hurry. The duo trusts patience; they let a pad arrive in its own time, a vocal harmony feather in from the periphery, a piano note ring until it teaches you something.
Track by track, briefly
“In the Sound of Breathing.” A hush that gathers—granular pads, barely-there percussion, a melody that feels learned rather than written. It’s the thesis: intuition over instruction. (Double-single released March 7, 2025.)
“Unknowing.” The project’s soft engine, where lyric and timbre linger on the cusp of confession. It’s also the clearest bridge between Arnalds’ neoclassical restraint and Loreen’s pop instinct. (Part of the March 21, 2025 EP.)
“Opening.” A long exhale that rewards close listening: micro-textures bloom around a piano motif while Loreen enters like light through stained glass. Issued as a lead cut on March 7, 2025, it anchors the EP’s closing stretch at 7:46.
Why it works
Plenty of collaborations trade on contrast. SAGES thrives on alignment. Arnalds and Loreen share an ethic—vulnerability as craft—and meet in a “minimal space” that each had only skirted alone. You can hear the respect in the mix: room for silence, room for breath, room for the listener’s own weather to enter. It’s music that doesn’t tell you what to feel; it shows you how to make space to feel it.
Coda: an open door, not a closed statement
SAGES resists the easy arc of “one-off super-duo.” The project presents itself as a beginning more than a conclusion, a proof that pop and neoclassical can share the same stillness without dulling each other’s edge. Whether they add chapters or leave this as a perfect fragment, they’ve built a small, resonant room worth returning to—one where breath is tempo, intuition is teacher, and freedom sounds like a single word repeated until it turns into light.
Key dates & details
— Double single “In the Sound of Breathing / Opening”: March 7, 2025.
— EP “SAGES” (Mercury KX): March 21, 2025; 3 tracks / ~15 minutes: “In the Sound of Breathing,” “Unknowing,” “Opening.”
— Short film directed by Thora Hilmars, inspired by the 1518 dancing plague; stars Loreen with a cameo by Arnalds.
Further listening: George FitzGerald’s remix of “In the Sound of Breathing” extends the project’s border between club and contemplation without breaking its spell.