LILJA - Muna (2026) [Hi-Res]

‘Muna’ means ‘to remember’ in Icelandic, and ‘mother’ in Elfdalian, a language spoken by around 3000 people in central Sweden. The working title of this music was ‘I’. The three last letters of Muna point to ‘one’ in Romance languages, and it is also a Scandinavian name, carried by the Lilja’s sister.

The music is composed as a non-dualistic autobiography — a paradoxical work about life from before beginning to end.

It draws inspiration from the Icelandic skaldic poem Lilja, a devotional poem of one hundred stanzas written by the monk Eysteinn Ásgrimsson in the 14th century AD.

The music was originally commissioned as Tingingsverket, for Vossa Jazz festival’s 50ᵗʰ anniversary.