Composer Damon Albarn produces tunes inspired by mountain peaks
Damon Albarn's latest studio album, The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows, is a deeply personal and emotional exploration of nature, fragility, loss, and renewal. The album was inspired primarily by the Icelandic landscapes, with its title drawn from a poem by John Clare that reflects on the insignificance of human loss in the face of nature.
The music creation process for The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows involved assigning musical instruments to represent various elements of Albarn's surroundings. He believes that if one allows oneself to make music and be sensitive to the environment, inevitably one is making music that expresses the environment.
Albarn has a strong connection to Iceland, having traveled there 25 years ago and been returning ever since. In 2020, he went back to Iceland at the beginning of the pandemic to work on the album. The components of the album come from being near the sea, and the album was created over 18 months with a group of orchestral musicians in Iceland, inspired by their surroundings.
The album's themes of fragility and transformation in nature, combined with the inspiration from Iceland's environment—a country often associated with the effects of climate shifts—imply a subtle engagement with environmental concerns through emotional and atmospheric expression.
One of the songs on the album, The Cormorant, reflects Albarn's feelings of smallness and helplessness when entering the sea. This sentiment is mirrored in the real world, as the glacier Snæfell, visible from Albarn's window, has significantly receded over the past 25 years.
Albarn's music, such as Plastic Beach and The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows, exists in the intersection of art and politics. He believes that all forms of media, including pop music, should be more helpful to people, and criticizes the focus on materialism in pop music, arguing that it is disempowering.
In addition to his music, Albarn often writes phrases inspired by his surroundings, such as "When rain turns into snow". He aspires to create emotional and politically-charged music that deals with awkward subjects, using his music as a platform to spark conversation and reflection on important issues.
In conclusion, Albarn's work reflects a strong connection to Icelandic natural landscapes and their fragile beauty, using this as a metaphorical and literal backdrop to explore broader themes that can resonate with ideas about climate and environmental change, though the album is primarily a personal and artistic reflection rather than a direct political statement.
- Damon Albarn's latest studio album, deeply rooted in nature and feelings of insignificance in the face of it, has themes of fragility and transformation that subtly engage with environmental concerns.
- The creation of The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows involved assigning musical instruments to represent various elements of Albarn's surroundings, suggesting a deep sensitivity to the environment.
- Inspired by Iceland's environmental changes over the past 25 years, Albarn's song The Cormorant expresses feelings of smallness and helplessness when confronting the sea, mirroring the real-world recession of the Snæfell glacier.
- In the realm of art and politics, Albarn's music addresses issues of materialism and disempowerment in pop culture, advocating for media that is more helpful to people.
- Beyond music, Albarn writes phrases inspired by his surroundings, such as "When rain turns into snow", and aspires to create politically-charged music that deals with sensitive subjects, using his platform to promote conversations and reflections on important issues like climate and environmental change.
