The Egg Presents: múm/Sova

With support from Sova

múm (pronunciation: [muːm] – moom) are an exploratory Icelandic musical group whose  music is characterized by experiments in electronic music, soft vocals, glitch beats,  innovative sampling and eerie effects with a variety of traditional and unconventional  instruments. The band was formed in 1997 by original members Gunnar Örn Tynes and  Örvar Smárason and has since then released six full albums, as well as a mountain of  other music, singles, EP’s, collaborations, theatre and film music. In 2013 múm released a  single with Kylie Minogue, Whistle from the film Jack & Diane which the band composed  the original score the year before. In 2015 múm wrote a special piece named Drowning with German pianist and composer Hauschka, commissioned by the MDR Sinfonieorchester in Leipzig where it was performed that summer. One of múm’s more  recent extracurricular project is a semi- improvised electronic music score to the silent  masterpiece Menschen am Sonntag (1930) and a special performance at Iceland Airwaves  Festival 2016 in collaboration with the Kronos Quartet, playing songs from múms  backcatalog at Harpa Concert Hall.  

In 2019 múm released a special 20 year anniversary edition of their 1999 debut album  Yesterday was Dramatic, Today is OK, and followed the release up with a special anniversary  tour of Europe & China. The US leg of the tour, scheduled to take place in spring 2020, was  postponed because of the global pandemic.  

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“Ghostly, delicate, elegant…” (Independent Clauses)

For Sova — the moniker of Upstate New York-based pianist/composer Sophia Vastek — the piano has always been home. A second generation pianist, she holds a deep reverence for her history, coupled with an exploratory ear, and moves quietly between musical worlds. Described as performing with “passion and profound tenderness” (Second Inversion) and “serene strokes and lyrical beauty” (Brooklyn Rail), her intuitive playing style has evolved into a dynamic, cinematic sound that blends neoclassical, ambient, and jazz sensibilities.

Sova’s new record Alight! is due out September 4 via Hout Records: “contemporary neoclassical with cinematic depth… an experience where the piano serves as the emotional core while immersive arrangements, ambient textures, and subtle distortion continuously widen the sonic horizon.” (R+) The album extends the breakthrough Sova achieved on her last LP In Our Softening, a solo record of original music, performed on a modest 1902 upright piano with softened hammers and a cracked soundboard. With Alight!, she broadens her conception to include contributions from a clutch of noteworthy fellow travellers: Spencer Zahn (fretless bass guitar), Clarice Jensen (cello), Evan Chapman (drums & electronics), Max Yassky (drums), and Sam Torres (saxophone and more).

In Our Softening (2022), produced in collaboration with Sam Torres (Polymouth Music), features nine of her own beguiling piano compositions, each track a part of a thoughtfully woven tapestry. The album was called “a tender and revelatory balm” by editors at I Care If You Listen, “heaven on earth” (Sun 13), and “one of the very best things I’ve heard all year” by longtime music journalist Steve Smith (Night After Night). 

Her music has been released on OPIA, the record label founded by Ólafur Arnalds, Innova Recordings, and more. Her debut album, Histories (2017), was produced by Grammy-winning engineer Adam Abeshouse, and described as “a beautiful mosaic of the larger cultural intersections of our world” (Second Inversion). She has also released an EP of the complete solo piano works by composer Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), entitled Lili (2020, reissued 2023).

In 2022, Sova was recognized as a composer by the New York State Council on the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts (NYSCA/NYFA) as a Music/Sound Fellow, a statewide program focused on the evolution of contemporary art.