No. 54

A door creaks open to a workshop bathed in late-afternoon light.

The air hums with memory—pine shavings curling on the floor, varnish shining wet on wood. Smoke drifts from a distant hearth, weaving through the sharp tang of metal and oil paint. Leather gloves hang beside scent-scarred tools, their touch softened by years of work. Outside, frozen moss and dirt cling to heavy boots; inside, cedar and patchouli ground the space in warmth. It’s a world of creation and repair—gritty, sunlit, and alive. Each breath feels both dangerous and comforting, like rediscovering a place that shaped you before you knew its name.

Fresh coat of varnish on a wooden shed.
Uprooted moss, wet dirt and vetiver roots.
Burnt car tires on hot asphalt and dry patchouli.
Heavy slow-drying oil painting.
Icelandic alpine fir, footsteps in frozen grass and salt liquorice.
Dirty leather, animalistic musk and ammonia.

Fischersund is a family-run perfumery and art collective anchored in downtown Reykjavík, where musician, visual artist, and self-taught perfumer Jónsi — lead vocalist of Sigur Rós — joined siblings Lilja, Ingibjörg, and Sigurrós, along with partners Sindri and Kjartan, to build something that resists easy category. Founded in 2017, it operates out of a space that is simultaneously a shop, a gallery, a venue, and an installation — a place designed, in the brand's own words, to let the senses synthesize and harmonize.

At the center of the practice is handcrafted fragrance: perfumes that are hand-blended and hand-poured in Iceland, drawn from oils and herbs sourced from the Icelandic wild, and packaged sustainably. Lead artisan Sigurrós Birgisdóttir oversees production in the Súðarvogur workshop, where each scent is developed in close conversation with the bespoke music and visual work the collective produces. The result is a body of work in which scent, sound, and image arrive together — not as adjacencies, but as a single sensory argument.