Moonlight in Visby was not initially intended to be an album, but simply songwriting as a means for Victor Mucho to process the feeling of isolation in an unfamiliar, closed-in world. He brought his mandolin to Sweden, and upon arrival, bought an old guitar from a woman on the island. The guitar turned out to be his songwriting vessel, his mandolin added natural texture to the recordings, and the eerie vastness of the island was his muse. The songs came to life in a dark, seaside adjacent bedroom, at times lit by the moon, other times by only a candle. Its window faced 221º SW, straight towards his home in Nashville.
“The List”, the latest single from Nashville-based Brian Macdonald’s project Victor Mucho, incorporates everything from synth lines, to the Baltic Sea to create a textured landscape that is at times both vibrant and austere. Macdonald wrote the album while living abroad on a Swedish island, and one can’t help but hear a little Smile era, Brian Wilson, here with sunny California being traded for the Baltic Coast. The full album, Moonlight in Visby, is out on May, 13 via Tone Tree Music.
When I lived in Sweden, I took my pup to a dog-meet-up near the ocean every morning at 830. It became my routine, an important way to start my day, and the locals at the park became my community. The song, ‘the List’ was written in the morning before the dog-meet-up, while I was making my to-do list for the day. If I had to sum up the song, it starts with a list of typical things we did in Sweden, and then ventures into a more subconscious list of getting to know the ways my partner has changed, but how my love for her remains the same.”
