“My Claws (Live in Berlin)” by Icelandic experimental sound crafters múm is from a recent album Menschen am Sonntag – Live in Berlin , music from a live-score performance to accompany silent film classic “Menschen am Sonntag” (1930). It’s on German label Morr Music. The Morr Music Bandcamp page is well worth exploring for more music like this.
“My Claws” is instrumental music rather than their usual odd and often whimsical songs, but it continues their strengths of merging acoustic instruments with electronics and creating other-worldly atmospheres in sound.
Formed by Gunnar Örn Tynes, Örvar Smárason, and classically trained twin sisters Gyda and Kristín Anna Valtysdóttir in 1997, múm may have be a less-heralded Icelandic export than Bjork and Sigur Ros, but are important innovators in the areas where electronic music and acoustic music overlap.
I came across them in 2002 via their 4th album “Finally We Are No One” which seemed to be assembled from toy instruments and various obscure acoustic instruments and sounded like nothing else on earth, as did much of the music emanating from Iceland at the time. If you want another more song-based album of their unique mixture of child-like wonder with sophisticated experimental song-craft to explore try their 2009 album “Sing Along to Songs You Don’t Know”
Pop Lib 