Here’s a less known fact about the founder of Blur and Gorillaz: Damon Albarn is an Icelandic citizen. He was granted that right a year ago, although he first arrived in the land of Björk and Sigur Rós over 25 years ago, when Britpop was still in the charts. He traded one island for another, much more secluded and less overrun by tabloids.
He fell in love with Iceland. He bought a house there and opened up a pub. You can take the rockstar out of Whitechapel but you can’t take Whitechapel out of the rockstar. The only thing missing from the whole scheme was an album about the country that gave him dual citizenship. The wait came to an end on 12 November, when The Nearer The Fountain, The More Pure The Stream Flows was released.
The second solo album by Damon Albarn, who has so far been involved in 28 studio releases if you count the Blur and Gorillaz discography, was born in his office in Reykjavík. He was looking out the window at the sea waves, the clouds moving in the sky and the mating of puffins when he got the idea to translate this landscape into sound.
Unfortunately, the pandemic hit and he had to return to London, but he took his hard drives with him. He finished the material in a crowded city, in direct contrast to what he finds in the Icelandic capital, although in pandemic times even the densest of territories seemed abandoned.
This can’t be considered a concept album about life in Iceland, though the experimental sound, especially on lyricless tracks like Esja and Giraffe Trumpet Sea, is reminiscent of the arid wilderness of the North. The Nearer The Fountain… would have been a different material without COVID-19, much closer to life near the Arctic Circle.
Because it was completed in London, the album is much more universal. This is also because there’s a lot of sadness and alienation in the lyrics, feelings prevalent in everyone’s life over the last year. Even the more upbeat tracks, Royal Morning Blue or Polaris, have a melancholic vibe and don't seem all that out of place.
Damon is getting ready to release a new Gorillaz album, then he’s going on tour, and he’s coming to Electric Castle 8. Things are getting back to normal, but that doesn’t mean The Nearer The Fountain… will go unnoticed. That would be a shame. It’s a special album, an album where you find something from all 28 other materials he’s worked on. And some new musical ideas. Here you’ll find the best of Damon Albarn’s past, present and future.
