Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.04.2008, Blaðsíða 17

You are bound to listen carefully. The drip, crack,
splash, plop and clack of icebergs melting echoes
down the phone line, leaving the listener to con-
jure up images of the depths of the glacial lagoon,
where the sounds emerge from. The sound of
Europe’s largest glacier melting, its pieces of ice
plunging into the lagoon, stir up a plethora of
images and sounds: water ebbing and flowing
against a raft, the clacking of ice cubes in a glass
jug, the sound of rain running down a corrugated
iron roof.
With her project Vatnajökull: (the sound of),
Glaswegian artist Katie Paterson has brought the
sounds of one melting glacier to your receiver. The
idea being that with a simple phone call, people
from around the world can listen live to the mass
glacier melting. “I did an interview with BBC Ra-
dio Arabic Services, and calls started coming in
from the Middle East. I was imagining people in
these very hot places calling to listen to this very
cold place,” Paterson says.
The project, which involved sinking a water-
proof microphone in Vatnajökull’s glacial lagoon,
Jökulsárlón, attached to a mobile phone set to
auto-answer and an amplifier on land, was first
presented for a week in June 2007. Due to its im-
mense success – around 3,200 calls from 47 differ-
ent countries and states (from Poland to Palestine)
were received – Paterson is running the project
again, this time extending it to two months.
Jökulsárlón lies at the southern end of Vat-
najökull and measures 20 km² and 200 m in depth.
The pool of icebergs is so spectacular that visitors
often admire it in silence. But while the beauty of
the lagoon is magnificent, Paterson chooses to
withhold the visual in this project, preferring to
evoke images of the unseen “dying” glacier. “I was
glad that the work spread so far – after all, the rea-
son I chose to use a phone in the first place was
to make it reachable from almost anywhere, both
singular and universal at the same time. Attempt-
ing to bring something so immense to an intimate
scale,” she explains.

The Sound of Global Warming
While the glacier itself measures 8,000 km² with
an average thickness of 400 m, the lagoon was
formed less than 75 years ago and is rapidly ex-
panding as the glacier shrinks, partially due to
climate change, revealing glacial ice up to 1,500
years old.
The National Energy Authority says that it
is witnessing Iceland’s glaciers retreat at unprec-
edented levels. When Iceland’s first settlers ar-
rived on the island around 900 AD, the edge of
Vatnajökull’s glacier tongue Breiðamerkurjökull is
thought to have been about 20 km further north
than it is now.
While the sound of a melting glacier unsur-
prisingly raises associations with global warming,
Paterson says she isn’t striving for an environmen-
tal message. She acknowledges the effect that a
changing climate is having on the ice cap – going
so far as to describe the lagoon as “a graveyard
of glaciers” – but insists that the project is more
about the glacier’s grandeur slipping away than a
direct message about climate change.
Dial the glacier (April 2 – June 1): +44 (0)
7757001122, www.katiepaterson.org.
By Zoë Robert
Everyone who’s anyone who was up for an award
was at the 14th annual Icelandic Music Awards on
March 18. The President, the Mayor of Reykjavík,
and anyone who may have had a chance to carry
home a trophy were sure to make an appearance
at the Reykjavík City Theatre that Tuesday night,
and the hall was at intervals consequently half-
empty.
The pre-drink in the lobby was embellished
by the presentation of awards for film score, vid-
eo, and album cover of the year, the first of which
went to Pétur Ben for the score of the film Parents,
and the latter two going to Mugison’s latest re-
lease, Mugiboogie. Patrons stocked up on drinks
and headed into the theatre’s main auditorium
where a range of camera crew and equipment,
including giant spider-like cranes, awaited the to-
be-broadcast live show.
TV personality and former children’s show
host, Felix Bergsson, was the night’s ringmaster
and talking head, setting the tone for the evening
with his unwavering twaddle recited from the gi-
ant teleprompter screen planted at the top of the
auditorium. After a few embarrassingly generic
pop-culture references, including an irrelevant
recitation of a line from the Wiggle Wiggle Song,
the awards for songwriter and lyricist were hand-
ed out, with the obvious favourites, Högni Egils-
son of Hjaltalín and Bergur Ebbi Benediktsson of
Sprengjuhöllin, each beating the iconic Megas in
their respective categories.
In the transition Felix really capitalised on the
cheer in the air. “Yeah, that was fun! Terrific.”
The festivities continued royally, Sprengjuhöl-
lin performing Verum í sambandi which, ten min-
utes later, won them pop/rock song of the year.
“Super,” continued Felix, “just great. Isn’t this just
so much fun?” Yes, the fun truly abounded, and
the comeback of the year, Páll Óskar, picked up
his first of three awards of the night, procuring his
second Singer of the Year title since 1995, saying,
“I turned 38 on Sunday, and I’m still fucking gor-
geous.” The audience heartily applauded.
Ceremonial awards followed, including a
Patron Recognition Award granted to billionaire
Björgólfur Guðmundsson and an Honorary Award
and tribute medley given to pop-king Rúnar Júlíus-
son for his 40-year plus contribution to the Icelan-
dic music scene. The ceremony began drawing
to a close but the crowd remained glued to their
seats as Páll Óskar suddenly appeared with what
seemed the first communal excitement-charged
moment of the night, and with a wave of his hand
and a flash of his glittering white suit took over the
entire stage. “All for love,” he sang, and for a mo-
ment, with the life that suddenly buzzed through
the crowd after the sterile two-hour ceremony, it
seemed like it just might be true.
By Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
Calling VatnajökullThe Icelandic Music Awards
Articles | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 04 2008 | 17
www.bluelagoon.com
Energy for life through forces of nature