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.

“I approach life similar to improvisation. If you say yes to mistakes, it can be the best thing to happen to you.” “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