Another random surge of creativity hit me today. I was watching "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (dir. Lynne Ramsay, 2011) starring Tilda Swinton, and its soundtrack features original pieces by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. One of his pieces plays during the credits, but I was already drifting to sleep by the time the film had ended. That isn't to say the film is boring by any means (it's actually mindblowing), but it was pretty early in the morning and I had been up for awhile.

My mind was wandering, thinking of the stories I had read that day – specifically the mysterious 1900 disappearance of three lighthouse keepers on Eilean Mòr (in the isolated Flannan Isles off the northwestern coast of Scotland). Thanks to early exposures to shows like The X-Files and the original Scooby-Doo series, I've always been kinda obsessed with mystery, the paranormal, unexplained phenomena, etc. The account of Eilean Mòr in particular has piqued my interest for years. (Google it, it's pretty trippy stuff.)

Something about all this alerted my imagination to what it must have been like to be there on that tiny, cold, desolate island off the Scottish coast when those three men vanished into thin air. It's a really odd connection to make, I know; but I felt the sudden urge to break out my keyboard and go about transcribing the song as best as I could by ear. Took me hours, but I think I got it. I'm hoping I did the original track justice, but I also wanted to instill a different narrative into the piece.

Thanks for listening.

Dialogue taken from a long-lost History Channel documentary.
Cover photo by [unknown]. Typeset by yours truly (updated in 2020).

Originally released on Soundcloud on 18 April 2013:
[ soundcloud.com/mnchls/eilean-mor ]