In February and March 2023, I traveled to Skagaströnd, a remote town in northwestern Iceland, for an artist residency that would transform the way I make music. Each morning, I opened my window to the mountain Spákonufell—rising through frost.
During my time there, I wrote and recorded this album in the freezer of an abandoned fish factory, surrounded by creaking pipes, frozen air, and the silence of deep winter. It was strange and beautiful.
Spákonufell is both a place and a feeling. A call into the unknown. A whisper from the land. The mountain itself appears on the album cover in artwork by the incredible Lena J. Fahlén, whose vision captures the haunting quiet and deep magic of the landscape.
Through voice, violin, looping, and electronics, I sculpted soundscapes that mirror the vast stillness of Skagaströnd—the slow melt of snow, the crackle of ice, and the lingering presence of ghosts in the old fish factory. Each track weaves together textures that dissolve the line between organic and digital, human and elemental.
I made this album for anyone who has ever needed to disappear in order to return to themselves.
This album was also shaped by a series of collaborations. I had the privilege of working with artists whose voices and visions deepened the atmosphere of Spákonufell. From Lena J. Fahlén’s haunting cover art to sonic contributions that subtly echo through the tracks, each collaborator brought their own kind of magic—adding layers of meaning, texture, and resonance to the landscape.
Daughter of Nai is a Ghanaian-American writer and digital media artist. Her work is grounded in themes of otherness, black womanhood, bodily autonomy, and displacement.
Scavenger, fed: Words By Naakai Addy + Music By Lara Kroeker + Violin parts by Cami Gliga + Beatrix McKenzie
Lena is a visual artist from Sweden. She is interested in how humans and nature affect each other. Her works have often related to the four elements, soil, fire, air and water.
Album Cover: The mountain that graces my album cover in artwork is by the massively talented Lena J. Fahlén.
Anne is a Photographer and book-maker based in Scotland.
You Left and Now I’m Thinking: Words by Anne Renahan + Ocean Sounds by Dylan Fitzgibbons
Spákonufell: Interviews by Dylan + words by Anne Renahan
Dylan, currently based in Phoenix, Arizona is an interdisciplinary artist that explores the notion of thin places, mythologies / folktales, and the meeting place of real and imagined.
Spákonufell: A collaboration with interviews by Dylan + words by Anne Renahan + Music by Lara Kroeker
AKaiser is the Pushcart Prize-nominated author of glint, co-winner of the inaugural Milk & Cake Book Prize (2019). AKaiser’s richly lyrical glint is a book of refractions and fracturing.
Astronaut, or Blues Singer: A collaboration with poet & translator AKaiser and her poem, “Astronaut, or Blues Singer” (glint, Milk & Cake Press).
Born and raised in Romania, Cami studied the construction of the musical instruments made of wood as part of her Forestry Engineering education. She moved to Canada in 2011 and established Gliga Violins.
Scavenger, Fed: Words By Naakai Addy + Music By Lara Kroeker + Violin solo parts by Cami Gliga + Beatrix McKenzie
Loc is my partner and when I said I was going away he was a supportive (although I did feel guilty when he showed me pictures of the cats at the counter with him eating dinner).
He is a trilingual senior creative and technology professional and helped master and produce all of the songs on the album. He also added various parts on all of the songs.
Linda’s work focuses on landscape in its varieties – urban, rural, coastal and sometimes wild.
Fly to Mars: Artwork in the video were Linda’s sketches of the landscape of Skagaströnd + Violin parts by Beatrix McKenzie
Damian is a rapper from Poland who moved to Skagaströnd 10 years ago to work in the bait factory. He lives with his wife and son Filipe (who is the child’s voice on the recording).
Rags of Light: A Collaboration With Beats by Damian + Music By Lara Kroeker + child’s voice by Filipe
Beatrix Mckenzie is a university student and an amazing musician who jumped in to help transcribe notation all of my songs.
Scavenger, Fed: Words By Naakai Addy + Music By Lara Kroeker + Violin solo parts by Cami Gliga + Beatrix McKenzie
