Icelandic cellist and composer Eythor Arnalds has announced the release of his new single ‘Promenade nr. 7’, the latest preview from his forthcoming second full-length album, Music for Walking, set to arrive on May 29, 2026, via Alda Music.
Following his 2025 debut album, The Busy Child, and the live EP String Theory, Arnalds continues to cultivate a distinctive musical voice at the crossroads of neo-classical composition, ambient soundscapes, and cinematic textures.
Unlike a traditional album, Music for Walking is conceived as a companion for movement. Structured as a series of ‘Promenades’, the project is designed to align with walking, breath, and thought, inviting listeners to engage in reflection and altered states of awareness. ‘Promenade nr. 7’ exemplifies this approach with its calm restraint and gradual emotional expansion, unfolding through a quietly building momentum.
Rooted in cello-led neo-classical writing, the track features violin, viola, piano, bass, and subtle percussion, performed by Arnalds alongside members of the Reykjavík Symphony Orchestra. The recording was conducted by Viktor Orri Árnason, known for collaborations with Björk, Ólafur Arnalds, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Yo-Yo Ma, and Hildur Guðnadóttir, and was recorded at Reykjavík’s Harpa Concert Hall. The production and mixing were handled by Grammy-nominated producer Bergur Þórisson, placing the work in the lineage of immersive ambient compositions such as Brian Eno’s Music for Airports and Max Richter’s Sleep.
“Walking helps us to meditate in our mind and open up our thought process and widen our horizon in every meaningful way,” Arnalds explains. Beginning from a minimal two-note theme, ‘Promenade nr. 7’ gradually accumulates energy, the cello rising “like a chain of thought that starts with an open mind and a simple idea.” The composition balances calm and tension, hope and subtle unease, reflecting the internal shifts that occur during solitary movement.
The single is accompanied by a cinematic video shot in southern Iceland by filmmaker Karim Ilya and art director Oliver James Broughton. The film follows Arnalds walking through the landscape surrounding his grandfather’s former cabin near Þingvellir, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates slowly drift apart. The stark, expansive terrain mirrors the music’s emotional landscape.
“As a child I spent much time in my grandfather’s wooden cabin by a lake in southern Iceland. There was no electricity, no running water, no phones. The environment itself became the focus — wind, water, birds. That sense of calm and awareness stayed with me,” Arnalds recalls. Water emerges as a recurring motif, linking the human body and landscape, while the cello acts as a parallel to human presence, shaped by breath, weight, and movement.
With Music for Walking, Arnalds further establishes himself as a composer of immersive, presence-driven music. ‘Promenade nr. 7’ embodies the album’s central idea: moving forward step by step, alone with music and nature, sometimes calm, sometimes eerie, but always in motion.
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