In the grand flow of existence, separation and sorrow are but shadows cast by the light of deeper unity. When we view ourselves as separate entities, broken dreams seem like irreparable fragments, wounds feel like permanent scars. Yet, beneath these appearances lies a profound interconnectedness, an unbroken wholeness that is the true nature of love.
Time, in this sense, is not merely a linear passage that heals but a process through which we rediscover this innate connection. Love does not “return”—it has never left. Instead, the journey through suffering, longing, and healing becomes a way of peeling back the illusion of separation, of remembering what is always present. Like mountains softened by distance, wounds, too, soften, revealing that all apparent losses are part of an intricate, unfolding play. In truly allowing ourselves to feel, to reconnect with presence, love guides us back—not to the past, but to the heart of now.
This theme is visited in the new single from Iceland’s Kælan Mikla, Stjörnuljós. Translated from Icelandic as starlight, the song is about human connection, and how we take turns guiding each other through darkest times.
“We’re experimenting with new instruments and samples, and the synergy between us has never been stronger,” says the band. “We can’t wait to unveil new world of Kælan Mikla!”
With Stjörnuljós, Kælan Mikla conjures a landscape rich with chills and shadows, their sound a seamless meld of dark allure and fresh textures. With threads from metal, trip-hop, and witch house, they summon something fierce yet unearthly. Sólveig Matthildur, Margrét Rósa, and Laufey Soffía breathe life into their haunting post-punk and goth influences, weaving a complex interplay of sound and spectacle that grips the senses. Each stage, each song feels like a journey through Reykjavík’s somber depths, where ancient stone and shifting mist meet.
Their lyrics whisper of longing—a yearning to revive lost connection, as if faded starlight or distant, glacial hearts could somehow warm again. Love’s endurance through time and trials takes form, where memories cling to the present like frost on glass. Broken dreams may lie scattered, yet hope lingers, a faint glimmer that with the slow passage of time, wounds will mend and love’s light will lead them back.
“We began working on this song last summer (2023) at Studio Silo in Stöðvarfjörður, a remote fjord in eastern Iceland, where we spent 10 days crafting demo,” says the band. “The weather was consistently foggy and misty, so dense that we couldn’t see across the fjord and the sea and sky seemed to merge into an endless grey void. This haunting atmosphere deeply influenced our writing process, infusing it with the eerie beauty of nature.”
The video, directed by eeriee, unfurls like a fevered dream, a moonlit wander through mist-soaked woods where mystery hangs thick as fog. A veiled woman appears, sparklers in hand, casting brief, flickering light against the endless dark, her silhouette a fleeting spark against the night’s quiet shroud. She glides ahead, and we are drawn into her wake, following her through shadowed branches and whispering trees, where other veiled figures drift in and out, slipping like phantoms.
There’s a strange, breath-held beauty here—a dance between wonder and dread, where each step might reveal something exquisite or something unseen and unnerving. The woman moves with an eerie grace, her form barely touched by the light she carries, her journey marked by mystery, as if she holds a secret too tender, too terrible to tell. This midnight frolic lingers on the edge of sight, a wisp of something half-remembered, half-forgotten.
Watch Stjörnuljós below:
Listen to Stjörnuljós on Spotify and join Kælan Mikla on their journey through the starlit shadows of their bewitching world.
Kælan Mikla is set to return to North America in 2025 as part of the Les Chants de l’Aurore tour, supporting French post-metal band Alcest. The tour kicks off on February 19, 2025, in Boston, MA, and will span various cities across the U.S. and Canada, wrapping up on March 23, 2025, in Brooklyn, NY.
Purchase your tickets here.
Les Chants de l’Aurore Tour Dates w/ Alcest:
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