Near Light

Near Light was the second piece of the Living Room Songs week, recorded and filmed live in Arnalds' Reykjavík apartment and posted on 4 October 2011. In his note on the film he said he had tried adding some electronics this time, and that because his mother and sister had come to visit, he got them playing synths as well. The credits list Roland Hartwell and Margrét Soffía Einarsdóttir on violin, Arndís Hulda Auðunsdóttir on viola, Karl Jóhann Bjarnason on cello, Fríða Ósk Arnalds on Juno-106 and drum loops, and Guðrún Pálmadóttir on Korg MS-10. Arnalds played piano, programmed the electronics, and recorded, mixed and mastered it himself. Tiny Mix Tapes noticed black tape stuck on the keys of his sister's synth, probably as a guide.

Its skittering beats and cold keyboard sound like nothing else on the EP. Beats Per Minute called it a sore thumb, though a rather beautiful one, and Tiny Mix Tapes counted its driving synthesizers among the record's emotional high points. It also appeared on the compilations Erased Tapes Collection IV and Made in Iceland V in 2012, and an official video by Lam Ho Tak was released in February 2012.

Live

It became one of the fixtures of his concerts. KEXP filmed it at KEX Hostel in Reykjavík during Iceland Airwaves on 1 November 2012, and again in its Seattle studio in September 2013. That March it closed his KEXP showcase at SXSW in Austin, with Viktor Orri Árnason on violin and Paul Grennan on cello, and KEXP called it perhaps the most uplifting song of the day. In 2023 he played it at Hafursey in Iceland for Cercle, between Kiasmos's Blurred and We Contain Multitudes.

The two uploads in the hypersongs web are the official video by Lam Ho Tak, set to the Living Room Songs recording, and KEXP's film of the live performance at KEX Hostel, Reykjavík, on 1 November 2012.