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 “”

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.

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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 “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; 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 The eruption of 2010 occurred at a time when the (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), “” (“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 of the Laki eruption fed into Winthereik 2016). sentiments about Danish mismanagement and effec- The geologists of Reykjavík Energy attempt to tively ended the Danish trade monopoly that had “arrange” the seismic landscape, working with and kept Iceland a colonial outpost (Oslund 2011, 38). modifying its “natural” behavior (Maguire 2017). At A century later, worsening agricultural conditions times, the geologists are simply guessing, with little following the Askja eruption of 1875 sparked a wave sense of what the effects of their interventions into of Icelandic emigration to the New World the landscape will be. The Earth reveals itself to be (Vanderhill and Christensen 1963). In other words, fundamentally unpredictable in a way that challenges there are seismic undercurrents to every major junc- the idea of the geologic as non-living. In fact, tion in the social history of this island.4 Maguire’s ethnographic evidence suggests that geo- Unsurprisingly, then, volcanoes figure in the cul- power engineers in Iceland indeed view the seismic tural history of Iceland as well, occurring in literature, landscape as a living agent. Despite public opposition folk stories, and music not only as symbols or motifs from local communities near the geopower plants, but also as personas with an agency of their own. The these efforts are expanding: once any attempt to volcano Hekla is perhaps the most notorious of all modify the behavior of seismic activity gets under- Icelandic volcanoes. In the Middle Ages, Hekla way, it is difficult to unwind or halt. Every time the attained mythical status in Catholic Europe as geologists try to change something, that is, the Earth a symbolic hell, or even the gateway to hell itself. responds with increased seismic activity. Maguire JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 3 concludes: “While the earth has always been unruly water-hardened stone (Palsson and Swanson 2016, in Iceland, the attempt to live—or be-in-the-world- 159). This remarkable episode, and its lasting impact together—with it, beyond relations of asymmetry (the of the future development of Heimaey, represents earth destroys) or dominance (we utilize the earth at a vivid example of geosociality. will), requires a responsive mode of engagement” A geosocial lens captures the significance of such (169). It is precisely such a “responsive mode of local experiences of living with a volcanic environ- engagement” that has been sought out by Gísli ment. Yet it can also do more. Geosociality can be Pálsson in his work on geosociality. mobilized as a political position: as a mode of engage- ment with the environment that accommodates the capacities and reactions of the Earth in our social The geosocial configurations. For scholars, the geosocial perspective Pálsson lost his family home in the volcanic eruption can help to spotlight areas of social and cultural life at Heimaey in the Westman Islands archipelago in that we sometimes miss, including a legacy of artistic 1973, an eruption that buried the whole community interaction with a lively Earth. For the current con- in meters of ash; it is now known as the “Pompeii of cerns of this article, the geosocial perspective allows the North.” The paradigm shift signaled by the for a culturally grounded music analysis where the Anthropocene is Pálsson’s starting point for return- concept of culture encompasses environmental and ing to his biographical roots, using a critical auto- geologic relations. ethnography to build his framework of geosociality, or “the commingling of the geologic and the social Composing the ground and the sensibilities involved” (Pálsson and Swanson 2016, 149). Geosociality allows for a “down to earth” The sonic, visual, and symbolic spectacle of volcanoes perspective characterized by a sensitivity to the liveli- has long excited the imaginations of Icelandic com- ness of the Earth, and it is vividly illustrated by the posers, impacting musical aesthetics throughout the events at Heimaey in 1973.6 last half-century of music on the island. The promi- The island of Heimaey is the largest of the nent Icelandic composer Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson (- Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands), an archipelago 1938–2013) reflected on the complex sonic stretching outward from the southeastern tip of characteristics of volcanoes, describing the sounds Iceland. The town at Heimaey had around five thou- in detail: “At the crater itself there are thunderous, sand inhabitants at the beginning of the 1970s (a explosive sounds and even near the crater you can significant population in an Icelandic context), with feel the ground shaking. The fatal walls of lava … are the natural harbor providing safe moorings for one of almost silent, but not quite, for listening carefully you the most thriving fishing economies in the country. can hear delicate, brittle snaps in the crust—dry On January 23, in the middle of the night, the ground clicks, like the fracturing of glass, spread out for shook as the volcano Helgafell, located approximately miles. When it meets wet land the lava also hisses one kilometer outside of town, began erupting. In the in a suffocating sort of way” (Sigurbjörnsson, quoted ensuing chaos and uncertainty, as constant ash fell in Schafer 1977, 26). like a heavy rain, the entire population safely evacu- Perhaps the most famous musical treatment of vol- ated to the mainland in a matter of hours (Williams canoes is the national-romanticist symphonic works of and Moore 1983). But the danger was far from over: Jón Leifs. His orchestral tone poem Hekla,op.52 streams of lava were steadily flowing down toward (1962), named after the volcano, is a musical-mimetic the harbor, threatening to fill in and destroy the animation of a volcanic eruption in deafening loudness, fishing port. Avoiding the destruction of the harbor featuring an unusually large percussion section replete became a paramount concern. with chains, anvils, and sirens. In Hekla, the musical The following weeks witnessed the “battle against material converges with the iconicity of the volcano, the lava,” a complicated series of events described in producing a powerful statement in service of the com- detail by Pálsson (2017). This episode is arguably posers nationalist idea of an “Icelandic character” unique in world history, as a local community (Ingólfsson 2019). Performances of the work are notor- found ways to halt and divert the lava streams of an iously difficult, partly because of the demands made by ongoing volcanic eruption. In the end, the Icelanders the composer, who even specifies the placement of large managed to cool and solidify the lava by pumping rocks on stage. huge amounts of seawater onto the advancing mass, Geology also figures as an aesthetic sensibility in ultimately halting it just beyond the harbor. The hill contemporary music on the island. Composers that resulted from the cooled lava cannot be consid- Haukur Tómasson (b. 1960), Þuriður Jónsdóttir (b. ered a “natural landscape,” as human agency was 1967), Valgeir Sigurðsson (b. 1971) and Páll Ragnar active in its very formation and the amount of sea- Pálsson (b. 1977) have written music for orchestral water pumped onto the rock resulted in a particular and chamber ensembles that go deep underground in 4 T. STØRVOLD their search for musical structures and sound explosion of the caldera at Krakatoa, in modern-day wrought in geological terms. Jónsdóttir writes about Indonesia, in 1883 produced sounds that were heard her orchestral piece Flow and Fusion (2013): “One of at a distance of 4,500 kilometers. An earlier extreme the images I had in mind while writing Flow and eruption at Tambora in 1815 created a “volcanic Fusion was different streams of glowing hot magma winter” of extreme climate conditions, causing fam- coming together in one surging lava flow which cools ine across Europe from 1816 to 1818. This climatic down, becomes a rock … and echoes” (Jónsdóttir event has been viewed as integral to understanding 2019). The language of geology provides a means of the emergence of the gothic literature of Mary Shelley describing compositional and structural techniques in and others (Wood 2014). There is, in other words, music—drones, layering, transformations, sudden a tradition of connecting the geologic forces of the gestures—and simultaneously placing ones music earth to imaginations of the apocalyptic, which is more firmly in the local environment. Geologic what Sigur Rós does on their album Kveikur. In its rhetoric is likewise well-suited to evoke music’s com- sonic, lyrical, and audiovisual features, the album plex polyphony of emotional states. In the music of connects volcanic imagery to visions of transforma- Páll Ragnar Pálsson, a “quake” can be as much psy- tive environmental events that decenter the human, chological as it is geological. The composer has clearing space for the turbulence of the ecological achieved international success with the cello concerto reality in the Anthropocene. Quake (2016) and the concerto for flute and bassoon, Crevace (2019). Although these titles direct our ears Burning rock towards the geologic features of Iceland, the music is as much about the people who live there, in the The opening track on Kveikur, “Brennisteinn,” was narrow belts of farmable land in-between the glaciers released as its lead single with an accompanying music and the sea. Composing music can be a way of video in March 2013. Written and produced by Sigur attending to the histories and memories that lie hid- Rós, the song was met with almost unanimous critical den in each crevasse. acclaim. The title alone possesses geological and even Geology is also a productive aesthetic terrain in theological connotations. “Brennisteinn” means sulfur, popular music: one stylistic precedent for Sigur Rós’s a common element (atomic number 16) found in abun- Kveikur is the “volcanic” beat production on Björk’s dance in Iceland’s unique volcanic soil. The distinct 1997 album Homogenic. In describing Homogenic, smell of sulfur is present in the many hot springs and Björk was explicit about her search for “an Icelandic geothermal regions around the country, as well as in the techno,” where the beats would sound as though they hot tap water in Icelandic houses, which is heated by were “still in the making”—a reference to Iceland’s steam obtained by drilling into geothermal hot spots. active geology, which continues to create new land But the potent smell of sulfur also warns of volcanic masses (Björk, quoted in Micallef 1997). Similarly, eruptions, which produce dangerous levels of sulfur Björk’s song “Mutual Core” from the 2011 album dioxide gases in the stratosphere, causing respiratory Biophilia incorporates geology in its compositional issues and acidic rain. When Eyjafjällajökull erupted in and lyrical material. The award-winning music 2010, a local farmer reported that “first came the floods, video for “Mutual Core” features an audiovisual mer- then the smell of rotten eggs” (Booth and Carrell 2010). ging of the human and the geologic, with Björk’s The more ominous meanings of sulfur, then, are voice hardening into mineral form by way of techno- contained in the literal translation of “Brennisteinn” logical treatments. as “burning rock,” similar to the English “brimstone,” In a sense, volcanoes are acoustic beings. The a more archaic word for the element. Indeed, the underground movement of magma and the venting connection between sulfur and volcanic fire may of volcanic gasses continually emit so-called harmo- have inspired the Biblical idiom “fire and brimstone” used to mean ,( שאותירפג nic tremors, vibrations that are (for the most part) (translated from the Hebrew inaudible, because they appear in the infrasonic range the wrath of God and the torments of hell. In the below the threshold of human hearing (20 hz). Still, Book of Revelation, “fire and brimstone” even warns these sonic signatures are invaluable to volcanolo- of the very ending of the world. This idiom appears gists, who use low-frequency-response microphones in the Icelandic translation of the Old Testament in in order to register acoustic data that reveals patterns the phrase “eldur og brennisteinn.” Through its sul- in volcanic activity invisible to the eye. The harmonic furic and Biblical reference, then, the title of Sigur tremors emitted by volcanoes increase in frequency Rós’s track engages in apocalyptic imagery that in before an eruption, as pressurized magma forces its turn suffuses the lyrics and the audiovisual aesthetics way to the surface. Then, of course, when an eruption of the music video, to which I will return below. occurs, the sound produced is anything but inaudible In Iceland, volcanic fire played a part in literary —in fact, volcanic eruptions have produced some of imaginaries of the apocalypse even before the arrival the loudest sounds ever to occur on earth. The of Christianity. In Norse mythology, the ending of JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 5 the world is foretold to Oðinn, king of the gods, by The music is propelled forward by Orri Páll a prophetess (völva) in the poem known as Völuspá. Dýrason’s imposing drum part, which was made to The description of the ending of the world sound deliberately aggressive. The band’s producer, (Ragnarök) includes the mention of the “fire giant” Alex Somers, said, “We wanted the drums to be really (eldjötunn) Surtr, who comes from the south wielding overdriven … I made them as loud as possible when his sword of fire. In Old Norse philology, there is mixing the record” (Micallef 2014). In particular, the a tradition of regarding Surtr as a “volcanic demon,” amount of compression applied to the snare drum and he stands as a symbol of the apocalypse itself makes the hits sound immediate and explosive. Even (Lindow 2001, 283). The passage in Völuspá that more prominent in the mix is the synthesized bass, the describes Surtr as “coming from the south” has led band’s first use of this instrument in its twenty-year several scholars to speculate that the composition of career, and one much remarked upon by fans and the poem was inspired by the eruption at Eldgjá, in critics. The band used a Moog Minitour analogue the south of Iceland, in 939 (Oppenheimer et al. bass synthesizer, which supplies a steady presence in 2018). Others suggest that the entire description of the low frequency range as it repeats the same figure the ending of the world—the sun turning black, throughout the main section of the song. The bass is steam rising, fire consuming the heavens—is inspired mixed loud, with a sharp attack created by the saw- by the dramatic experiences of volcanic eruptions of tooth wave oscillator on the synthesizer. The promi- the early settlers on the island (Davidson 1990).7 nence of this particular bass timbre is stylistically There are important differences between the Judeo- related to (hear, for example, “The Christian apocalypse (Book of Revelation) and Becoming” by Nine Inch Nails) while also evoking Ragnarök, with Sigur Rós’s apocalyptic vision align- the characteristic “wobble bass” of the dubstep sub- ing more with the latter. Importantly, Ragnarök is not genre of electronic dance music (hear, for example, the end of the world but the final unraveling of the “Southern Comfort” by Burial). The bass and drums in current world order, clearing the way for the world to “Brennisteinn” are examples of instrumental timbres be born anew and pointing to a utopic future pushed to the point where they start to fracture and (Lindow 2001,42–43). come apart sonically. These are aesthetic strategies that translate impressions of a volcanic environment into a musical composition, using the low-range bass in Musical style ways that suggest the inherent musicality of the ground below our feet. “Brennisteinn” is suffused with distortion, disso- nance, and feedback. Sigur Rós’s established post- rock style is merged with elements from other genres, Sonic instability: timbral cracks and fractures including goth, industrial, and dark ambient. The track features sharp, percussive sounds along with The crackling, fractured character of the instrumental the band’s characteristic bowed electric guitar, sounds on the track creates the impression of which generates waves of reverberating distortion. a musical seismic activity. Beyond the aggressive The impression is of a sonic concoction just barely drums and the bass, the bowed electric guitar is holding together in the midst of an onslaught of used to great effect in this regard. An iconic signature feedback. of Sigur Rós, I have described the production of this “Brennisteinn” has a total length of 7:58. sound elsewhere (Størvold 2018). Bowing the guitar Compared to much of Sigur Rós’s earlier work, strings alters their overtone spectrum through har- which is characterized by long compositions in monic distortion. By manipulating the angle and a cumulative and terminally climactic form, pressure of the bow across the strings, the performer “Brennisteinn” embraces a common popular song is able to shift the emphasis among the different form, its duration in this case the result of an harmonic overtones. On “Brennisteinn”, the band’s extended bridge section and a two-minute coda of guitarist, Jón Þór Birgisson (Jónsi), takes advantage of ambient noise (see Figure 1).8 this technique to fashion chaotic, noisy structures

Figure 1. Formal diagram of “Brennisteinn.”. 6 T. STØRVOLD that continually fluctuate in tonal emphasis. The gui- Jón Leifs’s aforementioned orchestral tone poem tar sounds are then sustained by a heavy-handed use Hekla employs the same musical strategy of excess. of reverb effects, and draped in a haze of feedback In both cases, the parameter of loudness, and its generated by where Jónsi plays in relation to his associated timbral characteristic of distortion, is amplifier. used to invoke something that transcends the To further unpack the sonic instability of this human. The immediacy of this effect is captured by track, I will zoom in on the opening of the song: theories of musical meaning coming from an embo- a low murmur of white noise positioned “far away” died-ecological paradigm. In this context, Zachary in the virtual space of the stereo mix yet seemingly Wallmark (2014) has studied the perception and growing nearer (in this case, frequency modulation appraisal of “extreme” timbres at the threshold of gradually introduces higher frequencies in the noise, music and noise in heavy metal music. His argument making the sound seem to move “closer” to the is that the metaphors we use to describe such timbres listener). This chaotic crackle starts out at a very are not arbitrary, but rather reflect shared bodily low volume yet grows louder as it closes in and experiences of the world. Metaphors for timbre are spreads out to fill more of the stereo image. The “grounded by the basic experiential patterns of life: white noise is characterized by sonic instability, in forceful interactions with objects, the feeling of bodily terms of its indeterminate pitch material and its con- exertion, knowledge of physical limits, etc.” (162). As tinuous modulation in frequency and spatial quality. such, Wallmark provides a theory for why musicians Something is indeed stirring. After twenty-two sec- and listeners interpret the loud and distorted sounds onds, the band enters via an explosive attack that of heavy metal as something approaching or exceed- suddenly expands the dynamic range of the recording ing physical limits. Robert Walser gave a similar quite dramatically. Overdriven drums, the synth bass, argument in 1993, turning to the physical constraints and a wall of guitar feedback enter simultaneously to of the human body to explain the fascination with set the pulse of the song and signal the arrival of the guitar distortion: “also the human body produces first verse. aural distortion through excessive power. Human Figure 2 shows the amplitude envelope of the screams and shouts are usually accompanied by audio signal, represented as a waveform, of the first vocal distortion, as the capacities of the vocal chords twenty-three seconds of “Brennisteinn.” The ampli- are exceeded” (1993, 42). With this in mind, we can tude is represented on a scale from 0 to 1, where 1 better understand why Sigur Rós employ these musi- represents the loudest signal that a digital system can cal strategies of excess in order to gesture beyond the reproduce before “clipping” (distortion) occurs. At human and evoke the volcanic. the onset of the first attack in “Brennisteinn,” the The evocation of volcanism in “Brennisteinn” can signal peaks at the maximum level of 1, with audible be further illustrated using a comparative example. clipping as well. The sound-art piece Eldfjall (“Volcano,” 2005) by the Through its sheer sonic excess (even exceeding the Danish sound artist and composer Jakob Kierkegaard maximum capacity of the audio system), the band’s features the vibrations of volcanic activity transduced musical eruption gestures beyond human limits and into sound using accelerometers. The accelerometers capabilities, invoking the volcanic forces of the Earth. were placed below the surface of the Earth at various

Figure 2. Waveform representation of the first twenty-three seconds of “Brennisteinn.”. JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 7 locations around the geologically active areas of the Anthropocene and the framework of geosociality. Krisuvík, Geysir, and Mývatn in Iceland, in order to I read its transcendence as registering humanity’s capture the sonic characteristics of seismic activity smallness in relation to the non-human agencies just below the surface (Kierkegaard n.d.). In below the ground. Kierkegaard’s work, the sonic characteristics resemble Thanks to its dark spectrum, dissonant timbres, the introduction to “Brennisteinn”: a crackling and and explosive dynamics, “Brennisteinn” immediately chaotic low-frequency noise expressing the restless- comes across as violent. However, as the voice enters ness of something that might be readying for an for the first verse at 0:45, the style is surprisingly calm eruption—that is, a kind of sonic seismograph regis- —the slow-moving melody in the tenor register is tering the vibrations of the Earth. rather still in the context of the sonic turbulence that frames it. The vocal part is built around short phrases that end on long held notes, with a lot of Darkness and the gothic space between each sung phrase. On this track, Jónsi In the music press, “Brennisteinn” was readily foregoes his iconic falsetto for his tenor chest range. received and described as “dark”. Using a spectral He sings with a relaxed larynx, allowing a lot of air to analysis, we can examine the distribution of acoustic pass through and lending his voice a “breathy” qual- energy along the frequency range, revealing the ity that—together with the amount of reverb applied music’s darkness in its acoustic form. The spectrum —produces a soothing vocal presence. The difference of “Brennisteinn” is entirely dominated by the large in pitch and register between voice and instruments amount of acoustic energy in the low frequency is also profound, with Jónsi’s voice floating high range. In fact, it is saturated with acoustic energy in above the other sounds on the track. the 50–100 hz range, thanks to the synthesized bass. The contrasting affects communicated by the vocal This relatively “dark” spectral profile gives the track melody and the instrumental performances produce a weight and fullness in the low end, which—together a fundamental doubleness that is key in realizing the with the overdriven drums and noisy guitar—lends song’s particular apocalyptic narrative. Rather than the song its sinister edge.9 communicating a sense of horror at the end of the A point of reference here, in terms of genre, is world in volcanic fire, the track’s calm, major-key goth rock. Sigur Rós members revamped their pre- melody suggests hope for the renewal of the world sentation for the 2013 release of Kveikur, embarking at ragnarök. The song lyrics in the second verse say on a world tour dressed in black and appearing in the same: “Nú bræða óf, endalok/svo flæðir inn, promotional photographs wearing black-colored dagsbirta” (“Now all melts, the end/Then daylight, clothing with distinctive links to goth fashion. floods in”). This semantic doubleness (all is ending, Musically, the contrast between dark timbres and yet daylight floods in) resonates with the harmonic a high-pitched male tenor voice immediately recalls strategies used in the song, which anchor it uneasily the iconic and genre-defining goth band The Cure. between major and minor. The introduction to each Likewise, an aesthetic interest in religious themes and verse is in Cm, but as the voice enters, the bass leaps apocalyptic visions represents another point of con- up to Eb, making the verse effectively major (Eb tact with goth music and subculture, which are comes across as tonic rather than minor third in the described by Isabella Van Elferen (2017) as operating verses because of the vocal melody centers on Eb and within a post-secular cultural moment of detached its fifth, Bb). interest in religion. Goth is secular in its belief system but leans on an eclectic mix of world religions, Audiovisual strategies in the music video occultism, and spiritualism in its style, symbols, and practices (ibid.). Sigur Rós’s “Brennisteinn” is related The music video for “Brennisteinn” was released in to both Judeo-Christian theology and Norse mythol- March 2013 to coincide with the unveiling of the ogy in the configuration of its apocalyptic vision, yet Kveikur album. The video was directed by Andrew the band members (and their fans) do not link the Thomas Huang, who has directed music videos for music to religious experience as such.10 The music’s Björk, Thom Yorke, and others. The video’s visual sense of an ungraspable or liminal “something” features align with the track’s sonic characteristics to beyond the ordinary is not tied to any specific reli- produce a compelling audiovisual whole.11 gious orientation but is instead typical of both goth The color scheme of the video is immediately and black metal in its yearning to transcend the striking. Everything is black and white, save for the mundane with the aid of excessive musical gestures, piercing glow of greenish yellow: the color of sulfur, visual symbols, and ritualistic performances. It also or toxic waste. The video opens on a barren waste- achieves this transcendence, as I have argued here, by land, dark and ominous, with the lights of fires in the drawing upon its uniquely Icelandic cultural and distant background. The air is thick with smoke or environmental context, as well as the backdrop of ash. The camera trails near the ground, where rivers 8 T. STØRVOLD of boiling sulfur run across the rock. In the sky hangs Analyzing such apocalyptic visions in music a huge, yellow-glowing moon (or sun). As the video unpacks different ways of imagining the causes, progresses, a narrative emerges: a group of people, actions, and effects of a world out of balance. An wearing some kind of protective masks, carries artistic perspective, of course, can enable or influence a person wrapped in heavy ropes and places the engagements with a host of possible futures in the figure on the ground beside a fire. The people then Anthropocene. Sergio Fava writes, “For something begin to frantically remove the ropes to reveal, at that does not exist, the end of the world has changed first, a mound of yellow-glowing rock, out of which a lot in the last forty years” (2013, 86). During the emerges a man caked in rock and dust. Soon, more cold war, the decisions and actions leading to the people rise out of the ground as well (see Figure 3). destruction of the world (through a nuclear apoca- The video’s visual style and narrative draw upon lypse) was relatively straightforward. Fava argues that the rhetoric of environmental apocalypse. The main we are now facing a “new apocalyptic narrative”— narrative of the video is cross-cut with other that of climate change—that is far more complex and sequences, including the band members performing, engenders entirely new imaginaries of the end.14 dressed in black. A key visual sequence in the video Surveying the recent surge of interest in ecological consists of a stone-like creature that resembles topics in contemporary fiction and film, Alexander a medieval battering ram lunging forward to break Rehding sees “a pronounced sense of acute crisis” as free of its keep by crashing into a gate of some kind dominating “an apocalyptic strain of environmental (2:11–38). After several lunges at the gate that coin- imagination” (2011, 409). Rehding even labels the cide with the four musical attacks leading into apocalyptic mode a “master metaphor” of environ- the second verse, the battering ram finally breaks mentalist cultural expression (ibid.). Yet, I would through its gate on the first beat of the first bar of argue that Sigur Rós’s “Brennisteinn” is not charac- the second verse. The way the music and images are terized by an alarmist “sense of acute crisis” alone; synchronized in this sequence reinforces the embo- instead, it plumbs the depths of the environmental died perception of the loud attacks as incidents of apocalypse as a sublime aesthetic, allowing the lis- extreme physical force being exerted in short, explo- tener to approach a sense of the beyond-human sive bursts. It also references a key event of Ragnarök, implications and time scales of the Anthropocene. when the monstrous wolf Fenrir breaks loose from The song welcomes the turbulence of an end to the his bonds.12 The battering ram eventually crashes Earth in preparation for a new beginning. into a sulfur-colored sun, evoking the myth of Gísli Pálsson’s notion of geosociality rearranges Fenrir swallowing the sun at Ragnarök.13 Musically, the relationship between humans and geology, and this sequence is accompanied by the two-minute coda something similar occurs in “Brennisteinn.” There is of “Brennisteinn,” during which the voice (as well as the sonic treatment of volcanic activity, discussed any “human” instrumental gestures) has departed, above, as well as the narrative of the music video, and we are left with an eerie and inhuman where humans emerge from (and as) rock. The song soundscape. lyrics play a part as well, as certain literary and

Figure 3. Screenshots from “Brennisteinn” music video. JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 9 rhetorical devices complement the music and video’s of Sigur Rós adds a sonic dimension to this concep- blurring of lines between the geologic and biologic. tual move. In its aesthetics, the music provides us The fragmentary lyrics rarely denote a subject, favor- with a palpable experience of the entanglements ing a pregnant ambiguity. Consider the first line of between the mineral and the social in a way that is the chorus, “Nú teygir sig og togar” (“Now [it] simultaneously affirmative and critical: affirmative stretches and pulls”), where the reflexive pronoun because it re-enchants reality, making it that much “sig” might refer to the Earth itself, which becomes livelier, and critical because it disrupts engrained anthropomorphized as a living entity that “stretches notions of humans as separate from the natural and pulls.” In the second verse, the lines “Í skinninu/ world. iðar á” (“In your skin/wriggles a river”) accomplish Environmental relations matter differently in dif- the opposite: a geomorphizing of the human. This ferent places, and they are grounded in particular blurring of the mineral and the biologic is portrayed encounters and particular histories. Still, human as a rather violent process, with lines such as “Rennur interaction with the environment has too often been blóð í æðum” (“Blood runs in the veins”) and “í excluded from dominant models of cultural theory liðamótum brakar” (“joints crack”) emphasizing the and research. Likewise, most methods of music ana- more grotesque aspects of the hybrid being that lysis are poorly equipped to register and describe the emerges as the song’s narrator, in line with the visual complex features of how creative practices operate in sequence in the music video that shows a human-like and through particular natural environments. As pre- being emerging from the rock. The aesthetics at work sented here, certain unique aspects of Icelandic envir- capture an important aspect of the Anthropocene onments bring the potential for insights that resonate condition. As Timothy Morton points out in Dark globally. As the ground shakes, then, so must our Ecology (2016), the fact that the human species is now models for analysis shake, and I have tried to apply a geophysical force shaping the geology of the planet an analytical language drawn from the geosocial con- is a dark insight, but one that holds possibilities. If we text of Iceland to uncover the ways in which musical acknowledge that humans are entangled with non- and audiovisual aesthetics are registering the turbu- humans in a common planetary fate, we might dis- lence of human–environment relations there. cern new forms of attunement with the surrounding While seismic instability may be more relevant to environment and develop new ethics and politics for certain locations than to others, we are all living in our future coexistence. turbulent environments now, with floods, droughts, hurricanes, and forest fires increasing in their magni- tude and frequency. This is why research on music Conclusion and culture must acknowledge such factors. We can In Facing Gaia (2017), Bruno Latour dwells on our no longer get away with a concept of culture that inability to properly sense and react to the ongoing stays “on the (Earth’s) surface.” ecological crisis. One of his arguments concerns how the scientific worldview of Western modernity has “deanimated” the world, seeing all materiality as Notes inert and passive objects in a world that is necessarily 1. Eyjafjallajökull translates as “island mountain gla- stable. Blind to the possibility of an unstable and cier”; it is named either for its distinct, round shape trembling—that is, a living—Earth, such an outlook or for the fact that it is visible from the Westman meets news of the ecological crisis with apathy. In Islands archipelago (and is therefore the islands’ Iceland, however, where the ground is quite literally mountain). 2. The Anthropocene as the name of a new geological trembling underneath one’s feet—where the agency — epoch was first proposed by Paul Crutzen in 2000. of Earth is clear to everyone to see lies some poten- The Anthropocene narrative has since been criti- tial. Here is where Pálsson draws on his experience of cized for inscribing an “Age of Man” that aggran- an eruptive and fracturing island to build a geosocial dizes human beings as masters of the Earth (Malm framework. And here is where Sigur Rós composes its and Hornborg 2014). The term is also problematic music. The words used by Pálsson is his descriptions in its view of humans as one homogenous totality, —“ ”“ ” erasing any and all differences and power relations. of Icelandic environments shifting, vibrant, Dipesh Chakrabarty (2009) is among those who “impermanent”—fittingly characterize the musical have questioned the ethics of thinking in terms of style of “Brennisteinn,” as described above. But species, yet he ends up endorsing the label as where Pálsson’s research operates at the discursive a necessity. For a thorough discussion of the term level, Sigur Rós mobilizes a geosocial sensibility and its consequences for social and cultural theory, — see Haraway et al. (2016). using musical and audiovisual means one that can 3. Various approaches to music and the environment complement and extend intellectual efforts. are grouped together under the heading of ecomu- As a concept, geosociality expands social reality sicology. For a state of the art collection of essays, downward, animating the subterranean. The music see Aaron S. Allen and Kevin Dawe (eds. 2016). 10 T. STØRVOLD

4. After the Askja eruption in 1875, which for many of Notes on contributor the emigrants constituted the “final nail in the cof- fin” after a long period of difficult climate condi- Tore Størvold holds a Ph.D. in musicology from the tions on the island, there were talks at the University of Oslo. He currently teaches at the Norwegian governmental level of relocating the entire nation University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, of Iceland to Canada. In the end, 25,000 Icelanders where he is associate professor. His main area of research emigrated across the Atlantic to found a short-lived is music, culture, and environment in Iceland. free state (the “New Iceland Colony”) in Manitoba (Matthiasson 1989, 158–162). 5. Many volcanoes outside of Iceland have been con- sidered entrances to hell, including Etna in Siciliy. Disclosure statement For a wide-ranging cultural history of the volcano as it figures in myth, art and literature, see James No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. Hamilton (2012). 6. There is a post-colonial aspect to Pálsson’s reading of Euro-American intellectual history and its neglect References of the geologic. He points out that while smaller quakes, landslides, and sinkholes occasionally gar- Allen, A. S., and K. Dawe, eds. 2016. Current Directions in nered attention over the centuries, major volcanic Ecomusicology: Music, Nature, Environment. New York: activity represented rare and exotic occurrences that Routledge. “ ” happened over there, in other parts of the world, Boer, R. 2012. Nick Cave: A Study of Love, Death and so Euro-American scholars did not have to account Apocalypse. Sheffield: Equinox. for these agencies and their role in social formations. Booth, R., and S. Carrell. 2010. “Iceland Volcano: First 7. The work of the volcanic demon Surtr is still visible Came the Floods, Then the Smell of Rotten Eggs.” in place names in Iceland, such as the unique vol- Guardian, April 15. Accessed 9 October 2017. https:// “ ’ ” canic caves at Surtshellir ( Surtr s cave ). And when www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/15/iceland- an underwater volcanic eruption created a new volcano-eruption-ash-earthquake island off the coast in 1963, the newly formed land Chakrabarty, D. 2009. “The Climate of History: Four Theses.” “ ’ ” was given the name Surtsey ( Surtr s island ). Critical Inquiry 35: 197–222. doi:10.1086/596640. 8. For a breakdown of common popular song forms, Davidson, H E. 1990. “Religious Practices Of The Northern their emergence and migration across popular music Peoples in Scandinavian Tradition.” Temenos - Nordic – genres and styles, see Moore (2012,80 89). Journal of Comparative Religion 26. https://doi.org/ 9. The spectral analysis was performed using the com- https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.6138. “ ” mand mirspectrum in MIRtoolbox version 1.7.2 Demers, J. 2013. “Ambient Drone and Apocalypse.” (Lartillot and Toiviainen 2007). Current Musicology 95: 103–112. ’ 10. The band s interest in the apocalyptic on Kveikur Fava, S. 2013. Environmental Apocalypse in Science and Art: underpinned its curation of the music festival Designing Nightmares. New York: Routledge. “ ” Norður og Niður, held in Reykjavík in Gilmour, M. 2004. Tangled up in the Bible: Bob Dylan and “ ” December 2018. Norður og Niður is an Icelandic Scripture. New York: Continuum. “ ” idiom that directly translates as north and down Hamilton, J. 2012. Volcano: Nature and Culture. London: “ but is used in the sense of everything is going to Reaktion Books. ” hell. The festival logo was decidedly goth in the way Haraway, D., S. F. Noboru Ishikawa, K. O. Gilbert, it alluded to occult symbols without referencing any A. L. Tsing, and N. Bubandt. 2016. “Anthropologists specific symbol. are Talking – About the Anthropocene.” Ethnos 81 (3): “ ” 11. The Brennisteinn video is available on YouTube: 535–564. doi:10.1080/00141844.2015.1105838. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc6zXSdYXm8 Ingólfsson, Á. H. 2019. Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention (accessed 2 November 2017). of Iceland. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 12. A repeated refrain in Völuspá (found in stanzas 44, 49, Ingram, D. 2010. The Jukebox in the Garden: Ecocriticism “ ”“ and 58) reads festr man slitna,/en freki renna The and American Popular Music since 1960. New York: ” bond will burst,/and the wolf run free. See Lindow Editions Rodopi B.V. doi:10.1163/9789042032101 (2001, 111) on the role of the wolf at Ragnarök. Jónsdóttir, T. 2019. “Thurídur Jónsdóttir Composer.” Thuri. 13. The way the visual sequence featuring the battering is. http://www.thuri.is/listen (accessed 20 January 2019 ram is edited according to musical cues is one Kierkegaard, J. n.d. “Eldfjall.” Fonik.Dk. Accessed 24 example of what Mathias Bonde Korsgaard terms May 2019. http://fonik.dk/works/eldfjall.html “ ” the musicalization of vision , which he notes as Korsgaard, M. 2017. Music Video after Mtv: Audiovisual one of the defining aspects of the music video as Studies, New Media, and PopularMusic. London: a genre (2017). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315617565. 14. Research on apocalyptic visions in popular music has Lartillot, O., and P. Toiviainen. 2007. “A Matlab Toolbox generally focused on American counterculture figures for Musical Feature Extraction from Audio.” of the 1960s, including the carnivalesque use of apoc- International Conference on Digital Audio Effects, alyptic scripture in Bob Dylan, The Doors and Nick Bordeaux. Cave (Boer 2012; Ingram 2010;Gilmour2004). Latour, B. 2017. 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