The sonically evoked spaces of post-rock in an era of climate reality

Abstract

While the transmediality of the early Icelandic literature is palpable in contemporary Icelandic art and music, this chapter highlights how the resultant vast, textured landforms of Iceland are mirrored not only within the praxis of Sigur Rós’ post-rock but also in its sonic sentiments of isolation (paired with exterior threats, instability and change) representative of a culture bounded by water. Today, rapid “ocean acidification” due to increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the ocean as a result of human actions is predicted to have a profound impact on the surrounding marine ecosystem. Sigur Ros’ ambient, haunting and affective compositions exist in the context of a broader artistic construction of “landscape as nation” in postcolonial Iceland. That is, the inclination for Icelandic cultural production to draw on the distinctive and natural features of the landscape – as a “land of fire and ice [ominous volcanos and stunning glaciers], cascading waterfalls, black sand beaches and vast, volcanic plains”.