Volcanic Action and the Geosocial in Sigur Rós's “Brennisteinn”

Journal of Aesthetics & Culture ISSN: (Print) 2000-4214 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/zjac20 Musical aesthetics below ground: volcanic action and the geosocial in Sigur Rós’s “Brennisteinn” Tore Størvold To cite this article: Tore Størvold (2020) Musical aesthetics below ground: volcanic action and the geosocial in Sigur Rós’s “Brennisteinn”, Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 12:1, 1761060, DOI: 10.1080/20004214.2020.1761060 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20004214.2020.1761060 © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Published online: 04 May 2020. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=zjac20 JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 2020, VOL. 12, 1761060 https://doi.org/10.1080/20004214.2020.1761060 Musical aesthetics below ground: volcanic action and the geosocial in Sigur Rós’s “Brennisteinn” Tore Størvold Department of Musicology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway ABSTRACT KEYWORDS This article presents a musicological and ecocritical close reading of the song “Brennisteinn” Sigur Rós; anthropocene; (“sulphur” or, literally, “burning rock”) by the acclaimed post-rock band Sigur Rós. The song— ecomusicology; ecocriticism; and its accompanying music video—features musical, lyrical, and audiovisual means of popular music; Iceland registering the turbulence of living in volcanic landscapes. My analysis of Sigur Rós’s music opens up a window into an Icelandic cultural history of inhabiting a risky Earth, a condition captured by anthropologist Gísli Pálsson’s concept of geosociality, which emerged from his ethnography in communities living with volcanoes. Geosociality allows for a “down to earth” perspective that accounts for the liveliness of the ground below our feet. Likewise, in Sigur Rós’s “Brennisteinn”, we encounter a musical imagination of the geologic that poses a challenge to hegemonic concepts of nature founded on notions of equilibrium and permanence. The article culminates with a consideration of what such a geologically minded aesthetics can offer us in the age of the Anthropocene. Introduction are enlisted as symbols to serve his narrative of the newly independent Icelandic nation. In contemporary On the morning of 14 April 2010, the volcano under- music on the island, thematic and sonic engagement neath the glacier Eyjafjallajökull in southern Iceland with seismicity is a palpable aesthetic across genres. started erupting.1 The ash fall disrupted the patterns With this cultural history in view, I will engage with of mobility that have become the norm across the a song by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós to North Atlantic; suddenly, millions of people were discern a musical aesthetics that registers the turbu- affected by a non-human agent, revealing the entan- lence of human–environment relationships on glement of geology and the social in everyday prac- a volcanic island. tices such as air travel (Lund and Benediktsson 2011). Sigur Rós composed and recorded their album The eruption of 2010 occurred at a time when the Kveikur (2013) in the period following the scientific term Anthropocene was gaining momen- Eyjafjallajökull eruption, the most significant volcanic tum as the name of a new epoch defined by the activity on the island in several decades. The music recognition of humans as a geophysical force. delves into the earth for its geological inspiration, with Although debates regarding the usefulness of the song titles such as “Brennisteinn” (“Brimstone,” or sul- Anthropocene concept are ongoing, the volcanic fur), “Hrafntinna” (“Obsidian”), “Ísjaki” (“Iceberg”), eruption marked the beginning of a decade in and the title track “Kveikur” (“Fuse,” yet etymologically which scholars across disciplines started to rethink related to the English “quake”). Kveikur marks a clear the relationship between humans and geology in var- stylistic development in the career of Sigur Rós. It is the ious ways.2 I look to Iceland as a site that holds the band’s darkest and heaviest record to date, containing potential for productive reflection on issues raised by more rhythmic activity and faster tempos than their the Anthropocene debate and their relation to the earlier output. study of musical aesthetics. Sigur Rós’s album presents an opportunity to In Iceland, there is a long tradition of people explore the capabilities of musical aesthetics to coming to grips with an unruly environment through express the entanglements of humans and geology storytelling and the arts. Folkloric practices—includ- in Iceland and beyond. Focusing on the album’s ing the traditional song cycles called rímur—often opening track, “Brennisteinn,” and its accompanying place human social troubles on a stage alongside music video, I will illuminate the musical and audio- treacherous lava fields and the hidden agencies of visual strategies used in its production. I will further rocks and crevasses. In the mid-twentieth-century frame my analysis via the cultural history of volca- orchestral music of Jón Leifs (1899–1968), volcanoes noes in Iceland and the theoretical framework of CONTACT Tore Størvold [email protected] Department of Musicology,University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 2 T. STØRVOLD geosociality, as developed by Gísli Pálsson. My aim is Sigurður Thorarinsson (1970) suggests that tales of to shed new light on the recent music of Sigur Rós by Hekla were spread intentionally by Cistercian monks seeing how its aesthetics resonate with Pálsson’s path- in order to deter people from sinful behavior by breaking work. In the process, I open up the fre- providing physical evidence of the existence of hell. quently discipline-specific method of music analysis Hekla’s first eruption after the settlement of Iceland to the broader concerns of the environmental occurred in 1104, and horrific tales of its fiery inferno humanities.3 soon began to spread. Several written accounts, refer- enced by Thorarinsson, then named Hekla as the entrance to hell on Earth (1970,4–7). Traces of the Living with volcanic landscapes cultural history surrounding Hekla can still be found Situated on top of the mid-Atlantic ridge and sub- in the Swedish colloquial phrase dra åt Häcklefjäll!, jected to tectonic forces, Iceland is one of the most meaning “go to hell!”5 active volcanic regions on Earth, with more than The seismic undercurrents of the Icelandic land- twenty eruptions per century in historical times scape are increasingly relevant to its national politics (Thordarson and Larsen 2007). A total of thirty vol- today. Elsewhere, I have discussed Iceland’s trouble- canic systems cover a large section of the island. some history of hydropower production (Størvold Icelandic volcanism is likewise exceptionally diverse: 2019). Like its waterfalls and rivers, its volcanism The island contains all known volcano types and has has not escaped attempts at industrial transformation experienced all known eruption styles, from the ico- for energy production. Following the same patterns nic explosions of stratovolcanoes to the cracks and of technological optimism and a firm belief in capi- fissures that erupt continuously for years and even talist logics of progress, Iceland’s volcanism is fast decades (Thordarson and Ármann 2008). With its becoming the next big target for energy companies. uniquely turbulent ground, Iceland challenges estab- Landsvirkjun (the Icelandic National Energy lished models of nature founded on notions of equi- Authority) and the private company Reykjavík librium and permanence. As such, it asks us to Energy (RE) are currently pioneering efforts to con- acknowledge the Earth as more than an inert back- trol and harness seismic activity in the production of drop to human activity. Turning our minds and ears geopower. These practices reveal interesting ways of towards Iceland could provide insights that are poli- working with an environment that is fundamentally tically relevant as we move forward into the unpredictable. The anthropologist James Maguire has Anthropocene. studied the geologists of Reykjavík Energy as they Over the centuries, people in Iceland have had to work in the South Iceland Seismic Zone (SISZ) to adapt to the facts of volcanic eruptions and seismic amplify and accelerate seismic energy. This work activity. Ever since humans first settled on the island involves “induced seismic activity” (manmade earth- in the ninth century, the volcanic environment has quakes) in order to produce enough geopower to shaped political trajectories there. A major volcanic meet the big contracts with the aluminum industry eruption may have catalyzed the profound cultural entered into during the boom years of the mid-2000s. changes that occurred in the tenth century, as The results are highly unpredictable, and residents of Icelanders converted to Christianity (Oppenheimer the small towns near the geopower plants are regu- et al. 2018). Likewise, in the late eighteenth century, larly impacted by the seismic instability (Maguire and the catastrophic effects

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