There are places in the world for landscape music.
Candle stores, for one. There’s nothing like shopping for sandalwood scented and ginger peach candles amid a lush cavalcade of woodwinds and atmospherics. Or massage parlors (no, not those massage parlors), the ones with hot stones, mud baths and manicures at $75 a hour. I can dig me some serious landscape music in a place like that.
Iceland is a place like that, with its lava-warmed springs, northern lights and frozen waterfalls — it feels like a world of privilege. White Mountain, the solo debut from Úlfur Hansson (touring bassist for Jónsi), firmly captures this soothing tactile but too often to the album’s detriment. Take the landscape music out of the spa, and it doesn’t resonate, it bores.
In interviews Hansson has noted each track is “a collage of field-recordings made while traveling,” and while there are intriguing sounds throughout, they shift at the speed of glaciers (pre-Global Warming). “Evoke Ewok” opens the album with a minute of seagull calls before a quiet electronic buzz begins its steady assault. It’s so calming that the gentle strumming of acoustic guitar three minutes in is somewhat startling.
The cinematic “So Very Strange” is a bit more sinister, as Hansson layers lyrics from Mountain Man’s Alexandra Sauser-Monnig for a piece that breaks into Sigur Ros territory, not surprising considering his ties with the band. “Black Shore” is the most electronic of the album’s tracks, it carries Radiohead DNA but in a subtle, muted tone. It has promise, but never becomes unglued and galvanized in the beautiful manner set forth by Thom York and his mates.
And on it goes. Perhaps living in a land with seasons where the sun never sets curbs the anxiety. I wanted the album to break out and show exuberance, but it doesn’t, preferring to tickle the piano’s highest treble strings, or linger in moody modulations. The album’s final song is called “Molasses” for crying out loud. Plaque build-up moves faster.
So no, I’m not pulling this album up on my iPod for a casual listen in the car, or to work out at the gym, or really for anything that doesn’t involve a deep tissue message. But there’s that, which isn’t all bad.
