I’m not sure exactly when my fascination with experimental music started. It was probably back in 2009 after seeing a performance at Iceland Airwaves, the sounds of birds chirping in what can be best described as an environmental soundscape striking me at that time as so radically different than anything my rock-loving ears had heard previously that I didn’t have the words to describe it. That’s not to say, however, that I liked it, but more that I was fascinated by it. But over time that fascination has developed into a broader appreciation.
Adam Buffington is an American with a PhD in music (technically a Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology, his dissertation was entitled In Relation to the Immense: Experimentalism and Transnationalism in 20th-Century Reykjavik) who until very recently lived and taught in Reykjavik, Iceland. He’s also a writer and a composer and a label owner, and his latest release is called The Winter Loving Idiot. I came across it via an Instagram post, the algorithm working correctly and feeding me the artist I didn’t yet know I was looking for. Buffington described the album in that post as “… a 22-minute fever-dream of my 10 year relationship to a certain North Atlantic island, and a fond farewell to this chapter in my life.” How could I not get a copy? Take my money, please!
The Winter Loving Idiot is musique concrète, a literal sound collage that stitches and weaves together various recordings – music, nature, conversations, and the unidentifiable, somehow using this disparate parts as the ingredients to make a finished product that just… works. Trying to describe it to you, though, is difficult. It conjures up that unattributed addage, “writing about music is like dancing about architecture”. Which is apt, because how do I explain it beyond how The Winter Loving Idiot makes me feel? Sure, I could create a list of what I perceive the various components to be: footsteps in icy snow, a child’s lullaby, a horn… but to what purpose? The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as they say, and the way it makes me feel is… contemplative. There are things to consider. Parts that fade into the background, others that leap out and grab your attention, demanding focus while not actually requiring it.
You can stream The Winter Loving Idiot on Adam Buffington’s Bandcamp page HERE. He also released a limited, numbered edition of 50 copies on CDr for just $8 each, so if you’re intrigued get one of these while you can.