Beauty Through Abrasion
Múm member, Nordic Council Music Prize Winner, and tour-de-force composer Gyða Valtýsdóttir released her latest album Mother Pearl on March 20. Drawing on philosophical inspiration, Mother Pearl is possibly Gyða’s most personal work yet, enveloped by an artful take on chamber pop.
When first asked to describe her latest record, Gyða Valtýsdóttir immediately draws a blank. Then she laughs, her face emotive. “I meant to prepare myself because I had an interview a few days ago. My head is just so focused on other projects right now. I suddenly didn’t remember anything,” she admits from a rich leather couch in Hótel Holt’s foyer — a stone’s throw away from her current workspace. In addition to her newest album, Gyða’s is a fixture within múm, and work for a new, high-profile film score was just added to her docket.
In a previous interview, Gyða stated that Mother Pearl is more personal than her previous releases — a bit closer to home. When confronted with her comments, Gyða pulls back a bit. “I don’t want to explain things too much. I find it a bit obvious,” she concedes.
Although Gyða has released two albums since the influential, Nordic Music-nominated Ox (the motion picture soundtrack Missir and the collaborative album Auga, both in 2025), Mother Pearl is her first solo work since then. Gyða compares her solo albums based on the respective levels of freedom she experienced during their making.
“[Ox] was personal in the way that I allowed myself to write a rap song or something. But this one is maybe…” she hesitates. “I don’t know. Maybe slightly more personal.”
On Mother Pearl, Gyða claims to experience a similar sense of freedom as she did with Ox. “Maybe I have higher standards now,” she quips. “I had a lot of time and space to make Ox during Covid. I didn’t get the same level of space for this album. It was made in the whirlpool of daily life in Reykjavík,” she describes. Imagine Gyða getting a lyric idea while queuing for groceries during a rainy Reykjavík afternoon.
Beauty through abrasion
Continuing the comparison, unlike Ox, the creative process of Mother Pearl managed to leave the confines of Reykjavík. Songs were written in various locations, most notably New York, Belgium, and Greece — one of Gyða’s highlights during the process. “[‘Checking In’] was written in a wonderful studio named the Old Carpet Factory in Hydra, which Úlfur [Hansson] and I visited,” she reminisces about her time at a residency in the Mediterranean.
For Mother Pearl, Gyða worked closely with fellow composer and husband Úlfur, who produced the album. Additionally, Gyða was joined by familiar names from her repertoire: Bert Cools and Indré Jurgelevičiūtė of the folk-forward duo Merope; flautist Alex Sopp, drummer Julian Sartorius, and harpist Katie Buckley whose talents shine on “Riverbed”. With a long history of collaboration with Gyða, there is a special layer of kinship resonating within the ensemble.
Calling back to the personal level of the album is its elusive title. Conceived as a result of Gyða and Kjartan Sveinsson writing the titular track, “when we showed up early to a rehearsal,” Gyða’s allusion to the geological properties of mollusks contains multiple interpretations.
“It’s a reference to a lot of things. It can be a seed, or a potency of some sorts,” she expresses, referring to a shell’s hard lining as the impetus for growth.
“If I tie that to the overall theme, pearls are jewels which are formed due to irritation. So it’s also referring to my belief that mistakes don’t exist,” Gyða continues. “I approach life similar to improvisation. If you say yes to mistakes it can be the best thing to happen to you.”
At home in the magic dimension
Rooted in the album’s foundation is the philosophical concept of existence — the state of something having an objective reality. “It’s something I’ve been very interested in. These dimensions of reality, and where you’re located in them,” Gyða ruminates. “I remember as a child searching for this magical dimension and feeling like I was inside it. It’s maybe something you find in all art. When you get zoned into whatever you’re doing. That’s like being inside a magical dimension. I belong there. It’s a good place to be in.”
Gyða is describing what is vernacularly known as reaching a “flow state”, where mental energy becomes fixated on a single task.
“When you feel creativity flow through you. When you become one with your occupation,” Gyða expands. “But I think today’s world is making it more difficult for us to reach that state — to find these moments,” she opines. “How do you maintain a connection to something higher or creativity in general, or this magical dimension?”
These are questions that linger on Mother Pearl. In Gyða’s opinion, the contemporary digital landscape is a barrier to human connection. Asked what’s affecting people’s ability to reach this level of existence, Gyða points at phones.
“You open your phone these days and you see what’s going on in Gaza and Iran,” she exhales. “It’s supposed to affect us. But we’re seeing so much of it that it kind of stops doing that. So I think empathy is a thread on this album. I think that’s important. But I’m also kind of examining my relationship with pain, and resolving it.” Gyða pauses. “Humanity is so important. Connecting with people. Popping to the bakery and looking people in the eyes,” she concludes.
Light and dark
As Mother Pearl opens with its titular track — written in collaboration with Sigur Rós’s Kjartan Sveinsson — you immediately sense that Gyða is wanting to move closer to the listener. This is a feeling that persists throughout as the album’s close-mic method creates an ethereal intimacy with the chorus of sounds.
Fine-woven melodies intertwine within each other while a barebones piano builds the foundation. Intermittently throughout the record, Gyða’s familiar cello strokes make appearances at the exactly correct times, adding an abrasive texture to the body of work.
Brilliantly crafted from start to finish, Mother Pearl sees Gyða take on chamber pop, imbuing it with a sense of existential dread. Still, there is light, hope and love peering out from underneath the haunting compositions.
When working on music, Gyða usually doesn’t set herself a strict, pre-determined ideation, rather letting herself identify different strands of her creation retroactively.
“When I start noticing a thread. It’s like, ‘Right, I’m sort of speaking into this or that.’ But also, what I’m personally navigating constantly is being connected to the wider world and being open and empathetic,” she explains. “When I was younger, it made me depressed. I managed to stave off the depression, so today I’m constantly navigating how much I can allow to seep in, without it pulling me down.”
Bad Bad Not Good Bunny
Ironically, Mother Pearl is probably the last thing on Gyða’s mind these days. She’s preparing for her next project, scoring the upcoming historical drama Porto Rico. Directed by filmmaker and rapper René Pérez “Residente” Joglar, the film stars Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — better known as Bad Bunny — in his first feature role, including Javier Bardem, Edward Norton and Viggo Mortensen.
As the story goes, Residente contacted Gyða via an Instagram DM. The reason for choosing Gyða, Residente told her, came after an AI program recommended her for the role of composer.
“It’s so fun to work with Residente,” Gyða says of the process. “He’s also a musician, and he’s very involved and has a lot of trust in me. He’s sent me a lot of inspiration but his message is always, ‘Just do what you want.’ So this is a total adventure,” she smiles.
Further drawing Gyða’s attention from her solo material is her ongoing work with múm, touring Asia in April, with more show dates to be announced. Releasing Mother Pearl via the creative nucleus Marvaða, Gyða managed to free up crucial time.
“I released the last two albums on my own, and this time I wanted a team and support,” she says. “I was scheduling everything myself, every tour and the like. I slowly started to realise that this kind of admin work was taking over all the time I had to create music or be an artist. And I wasn’t even good at it,” she laughs.
Mother Pearl is out on available streaming platforms now. Gyða fans will have to wait until fall 2026 for news about the upcoming release show.
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