Reykjavík Grapevine - apr. 2022, Blaðsíða 20

17.02.22–09.04.22
Peace
Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir
i8 Gallery
Tryggvagata 16
101 Reykjavík
Iceland
info@i8.is
+354 551 3666
www.i8.is
29.01.–15.05.2022
Birgir
Andrésson
As Far as the Eye Can See
Open daily
10h00–17h00
artmuseum.is
#reykjavikartmuseum
Kjarvalsstaðir
Flókagata 24
105 Reykjavík
+354 411 6400
Findin! A Place
In Nomadland
MIMRA explores dimensions
Words: Valur Grettisson Photos: Art Bicnick & Anna Magg%
It’s no easy feat to define MIMRA’s
music. Bordering on electronic and
folk music, it’s tempting to just boil
it down to some kind of dream-pop.
But nothing is that simple when it
comes to María Magnúsdóttir, the
person behind the project. On her
new album, the artist plays with
more traditional structures when
it comes to her compositions while
staying true to her original sound.
Exploring dimensions
“I allow myself to explore a lot of
dimensions in music and often
find myself on borders of dreamy
experience and something more
straightforward,” María explains,
and this is understandable, since
she’s educated in jazz music,
composition and production and
is teaching music at FÍH Musicians'
Union school of music and MÍT
Highschool of music alongside her
work as MIMRA.
Perhaps the reason for this odd
travelling in the music scene might
be because she has found herself
between worlds.
“I was kind of homeless after
I experienced a heartbreak a few
years ago,” she says. This changed
her life in a drastic way. She decided
to move back to Iceland from
London where she was living at the
time. “I hadn’t lived in Iceland for
10 years, but now, suddenly, I found
myself at a crossroads. Suddenly, I
needed to find a new purpose,” she
adds.
Make up your mind,
weather
María said it was hard to return to
Iceland and try to fit into a society
she barely knew anymore.
“But then I came across this arti-
cle about the weather and Iceland,”
she explains. “The core of the arti-
cle was that the weather, perhaps
like Icelanders, just couldn’t make
up its mind.”
She strived to create this lack of
decisiveness in her new album.
Almost all of the songs on
MIMRA’s new album, Finding Place,
were written in 2017 and 2018, a
while ago now. Writing songs over
a few years and then gathering the
best ones for an album is a process
MIMRA has always followed, even
for her first album, Sinking Island.
Telling a story is
important
María follows the folk tradition
when it comes to writing lyrics.
“I try to tell a story, and I need to
understand it and make it under-
standable for the audience,” she
says, pointing out that one song,
Sister, was inspired by the #MeToo
movement. “And perhaps to top
everything, I got into Handmaid's
Tale,” she adds and chuckles.
MIMRA is once again standing
at a crossroads. Her album release
and album release concert is today
April 1st — and it’s not an April
fool’s thing.
Always moving
“I just want to tap into the audi-
ence that wants to hear something
alternative, music that treads the
line of the conventional and not
so conventional,” María says. Of
course, her album will be avail-
able on all of the main streaming
services, but she will also release a
handful of vinyl records.
Before the conversation dwin-
dles, I have to ask” where does the
name MIMRA come from?
“I came across it at Fimbulfamb
[the Icelandic version of Scrabble],”
she says. “The meaning is to be
constantly moving,” she explains.
It’s fitting.
“The meaning
is to be
constantly
moving.”