Can a landscape truly be captured in sound and music? Well yes, the essence of the beautifully stark Scandinavian woods, meadows and fjords has been expertly distilled in Swedish dream-pop act Mountain Bird’s new single “The Visitor”. Drink in the sonically divine loneliness!
Mountain Bird is the brainchild of multi-talented frontman Adam Öhman, who writes, arranges and produces, with support from band mates Anders Erlandsson Öberg, Victor Jonsson, Dennis Fyhr and Sam Ekberg. Although comparisons can be made with other electronic/indie-rock/dream-pop acts such as Sigur Rós, Röyksopp, The xx, M83, Arcade Fire and Choir of Young Believers (their song “Hollow Talk” is the theme tune to Danish-Swedish TV crime series “The Bridge”), Mountain Bird definitely creates its own uniquely sparse wall-of-sound of epically melancholic proportions.
“The Visitor”, lead single of new 5-track EP “Cosmos II”, is a song of daydream-like introspection, led by yearning, palm-muted guitar riffs, solemn piano chords, echoing vocal-sample loops and a hypnotic pulsating drum pattern, which build to a cathartic crescendo. Adam’s raspy, hushed, lilting vocal perfectly conveys the mood of the bleakly solitary lyrics: “Take a shower just to feel existent / Back to bed, too tired to leave the room”. The overall feeling is one of pleasurably painful regret and sorrow, striving for the light of redemption and release.
The accompanying video for “The Visitor”, directed by Rikkard Häggbom, offers nightmarishly evocative images to complement the entrancing and haunting qualities of the song. In sequences reminiscent of “Hemlock Grove” and “The Blair Witch Project”, a young boy is seen dreaming of himself exploring a forest full of floating cottonwood seed, menaced by a yellow snake and a prowling wolf, and aided only by the ghostly glow of a flashlight at night.
“The Visitor” marks the arrival of Mountain Bird as a major new creative force in the electronic/dream-pop soundscape, with the mesmerising hooks and universally emotive feeling to transport itself into the mainstream. Look out for “Cosmos II”!
