Musical aesthetics below ground: volcanic action and the geosocial in Sigur Rós’s “Brennisteinn”

• Published in: Journal of Aesthetics & Culture
• Main Author: Tore Størvold
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2020
• Subjects: sigur rós; anthropocene; ecomusicology; ecocriticism; popular music; iceland; Arts in general; NX1-820; Aesthetics; BH1-301; Post Rock; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/20004214.2020.1761060; https://doaj.org/article/a07d9a7ef30d44b3a72cb6adbe1de6cf

This article presents a musicological and ecocritical close reading of the song “Brennisteinn” (“sulphur” or, literally, “burning rock”) by the acclaimed post-rock band Sigur Rós. The song—and its accompanying music video—features musical, lyrical, and audiovisual means of 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.