The music on mùm’s second album, Finally We Are No One, is slow-moving. Mysterious. Playful, but also shy. Intimate and lonely, yet broad and expansive, as if the tail end of each song, buffeted by the wind, stretches all the way to the horizon.
In short, it sounds as if it was recorded in a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere.
Which is because it was recorded in a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere.
The Galtarviti lighthouse is a tiny dot in Iceland’s top-left corner; perhaps the most isolated part of a country known for its solitude and isolation. To get there from Rejkyavik, it’s an eight-hour drive to where the road ends, followed by (depending on the weather and your feelings about hiking) either a three-hour walk or a 40-minute boat ride.
Despite its inaccessibility – or more likely because of it – Galtarviti has long been a desirable retreat for artists of all types. A residency program for many years allowed one lucky artist to stay there each year during the solstice; that magical time of year in Iceland when the sun never sets.
Mùm’s time there was, according to the band, a time of clarity that came across in their music: “I think it’s more than getting the right sound; it’s getting the right moment, getting the right atmosphere […] That’s what the place does: The right moment and doing something the right way becomes clearer to you somehow.”
If that kind of distance, solitude, and clarity appeal to you, I’ve got great news: according to the lighthouse’s website, it’s currently for sale, along with the thousand or so acres of land surrounding it.
If your love of solitude falls a bit short of buying a patch of isolated land, taking a break to enjoy the music of mùm is a good alternative.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The landscape of Iceland, both barren and majestic, comes across in the gritty, glitchy sounds sprinkled throughout the song.
2. The first time it appears, the main melody is delivered in unison by a variety of instruments, suggesting a unity between the band’s members.
3. As it progresses, the instruments diverge a bit, harmonizing with each other briefly before kind of fading into the background, giving way again to the glitchy, distant, barren soundscape that opened the song.
Recommended listening activity:
Unplugging everything in your house except for one light.