[1] His music has been widely performed and commissioned by ensembles including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Quatuor Bozzini, the pianist Eve Egoyan, the violinist Mira Benjamin and the cellist Anton Lukoszievieze.
[2][3][4] Arnold studied at the University of Alberta, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (1981–82) and was a guest student at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (1982–83).
[1] He performs regularly within the city's free improvisation and experimental music communities on melodica, hurdy-gurdy, prepared autoharp, real-time manipulated and processed CD player and banjo.
[5] Arnold's 40-minute work Tam Lin (2010), a setting of the Scottish ballad of the same name, was written for a combination of improvising trio The Draperies and experimental music ensemble Arraymusic.
Writing of this work in The Wire magazine, the journalist Tim Rutherford-Johnson described this piece as "stretch[ing] its source material almost beyond recognition, the ending of each sumptuous multi-vocal phrase becoming a vehicle for increasingly langorous instrumental improvisations".
[9] Arnold's most recent large-scale commission was The Gay Goshawk (2019), written for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, alongside improvising soloists Angharad Davies and Sharron Kraus.