Victor Mucho Shares 'The List' Single Ahead of 'Moonlight in Visby' Debut

Victor Mucho, an indie-folk project from Brian Macdonald of the multi-Platinum band Judah & the Lion, recently announced his solo debut called Moonlight in Visby. The latest single, "the List," is available today on all DSPs ahead of the album's May 13 release via Tone Tree Music.

Produced by Swedish Grammy-nominee Tobias Fröberg (Peter Bjorn and John, Ane Brun), the 13-track set was written and recorded while living on the remote island of Gotland, Sweden. The songs combine "braided mandolins and cozy acoustic guitar" (FLOOD Magazine) with ambient sounds inspired by the Baltic coastline. Scenes from Visby - the tiny, rural town Macdonald, his wife, and their dog Halyard called home - are captured in the visual for "the List."

Of the new single, Macdonald offers, "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."

Victor Mucho previously shared "so terribly hurt," a duet with fellow Nashville singer/songwriter Molly Parden. FLOOD Magazine praised, "It's a felt performance that contends with the lush, expanding background of artists like Saintseneca or Bowerbirds," and The Alternative added, "The instrumentation and the vocals are as delicately stunning as snowflakes caught in a gloved hand, sparkling cold and bright until the song melts away."

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.

In Visby, Victor Mucho found himself in a secluded bubble surrounded every day by artifacts spanning eons. He walked streets bordered by centuries-old medieval defense walls and Viking ruins. He uncovered the ancient lives of fossils among the smooth stone beaches.

He learned to surf the unforgiving, cold, and stormy Baltic waves. He camped on the neighboring sheep island of Fårö, once home to the legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, whose bleak outlook of the world seems founded by the rigid lithic landscape of the island. Through each moment, a new piece of Moonlight in Visby was forged, becoming an accidental soundtrack to stillness and isolation.

With Judah & the Lion, Macdonald has spent nearly a decade making chart-topping Alternative folk-rock with appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Conan, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and more. Their latest record was described by NPR Music as "building, storming, banjos flying...there's so much energy and velocity to these songs," with Rolling Stone praising the "arena-sized arrangement of acoustic strums, processed vocal samples and booming electronics." As Victor Mucho, Macdonald has peeled back a new layer of what he has to offer musically: intimate lyrics amid sonic textures that vividly capture the vastness and isolation of an idyllic, yet harsh, landscape.

Listen to the new single here:

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