Without Listening

Without Listening is the second solo album by Icelandic composer, pianist and producer Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson, released on 13 November 2020. Written and refined over roughly three years, beginning in late 2017, the record brings together composition and improvisation while moving between minimalist piano, improvisational jazz, electronics and more heavily percussive passages. Magnús himself described it as having two sides: one jazzier and more instrumental, built around drums and saxophone, and another that is ambient and almost entirely electronic.

The album was made in close collaboration with saxophonist and electronic musician Tumi Árnason and drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen, with recording engineer Bergur Þórisson, who also mixed and mastered the record. Magnús plays piano, Rhodes, Hammond organ, synthesizers, electronics and clarinet.

Curiously, the visual identity came first. The cover photograph, taken by Magnús's brother Ingvar Högni Ragnarsson, shows a partly constructed building and belongs to a photographic series titled Waiting, documenting construction in the aftermath of Iceland's financial crash. Magnús had the photograph hanging in his bedroom and decided it would make a good album cover before he had actually begun writing the music; he later said that its atmosphere inspired the record.

Writing about the album, The Reykjavík Grapevine called it a journey through “a murky area between post-classical, improvisational jazz and dark electronica.”

Truly stunning. Kind of like if Philip Glass, Ludovico Einaudi and Atticus Ross got drunk and decided to do an experimental improvised collaboration with their jazzy friends from the conservatory who were under the impression they were doing a minimalist soundtrack album for an indie slow-burn psychological thriller. What a misunderstanding! Thankfully it ended up in this beautiful track. To be honest, I’m truly so happy to have found Magnús Jóhann because I imagine “Waiting” will definitely be on constant rotation at the Grapevine office.

— The Reykjavík Grapevine

The closing piece, “Sálmur fyrir Sollu systur,” was nominated for Song/Composition of the Year in the Open Category at the Icelandic Music Awards.