Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.10.2014, Blaðsíða 28

Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.10.2014, Blaðsíða 28
28 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 16 — 2014TRAVEL I’d seen my prerequisite Björk videos and the film of Sigur Rós travelling around the countryside. But aside from these musical interpretations of the landscape I didn’t really have my own concept of what those places would be like, let alone what they would sound like. Iceland, like any place, has unique fea- tures that make up how we see the coun- try. You don’t even have to leave Reykjavík to hear the uniqueness of Iceland—its “sonic footprint,” so to speak. At the har- bour the boats come in and out, dragging chains to the dock with noisy fervour, un- loading everything from shipping contain- ers to vehicles to packed crates of fish. On Laugavegur you’ll hear both the shopping and party scenes; by day the air is full of family chats and commerce, and by night, the sounds of broken beer glasses, dance club beats, and a few curse words mix in with very moist make-out slobbering and some early morning seagulls. We headed out with a guidebook, a couple bottles of wine, the phone num- bers of hostels that we’d booked, and lots of trashy snack food. The first thing I noticed was that outside of Reykjavík, the sonic landscape changes drastically. Every place we visited had its own sound profile, made up of the birds and animals in the area and the rustling of plants and grasses. Naturally, many of those places were dominated by water—Route 1 never goes too far from a water source. Where there wasn’t water, there was sure to be wind—and lots of it. Iceland’s sonic profile wouldn’t be anything without its weather. The West We drove first around the Snæfellsnes Peninsula north of Reykjavík, thus begin- ning my obsession with the sounds of in- numerable waterfalls around the country. Some waterfalls have a high white-noise quality, and others a low roar. Some wa- terfalls have offshoots with little rivu- lets that sound like a chorus of babbling brooks, or even crude imitations of human voices. I would lean over the streams and the waterfalls with my digital recorder, trying to capture the uniqueness of each “foss.” The Snæfellsnes region alone had a flurry of sounds that I never imagined I would be experiencing, including beauti- ful musical instruments. The bells on the cavernous Stykkishólmur church rang out with a clang. The church’s small pipe organ was one of the most warm and welcoming I played while in Iceland. And please don’t think I’m just wander- ing around playing instruments that aren’t mine. I do have a doctorate in music and I am a keyboardist by training, so I can make my way around some classic Icelan- dic hymns on two manuals. Is that enough to warrant an improvisation in a quiet church for an audience of two road-trip buddies? I hope so. I felt like I was paying homage to some of these well-kept instru- ments, a little concert for the off-season. On the way down the mountain from the glacier Snæfellsjökull, a picnic bench marked the spot for Sönghellir, or “Singing Caves.” We crawled under an overhang- ing rock and stuck our heads into the pitch-black darkness. Once we got over thoughts of being cursed by the Hidden Folk for disturbing their homes, we real- ized that the acoustics in the space indeed have a beautiful resonance. Anyone’s voice sounds great in the Singing Cave— the echo is quite impressive for such a small space. Naturally I coerced my fellow travellers into singing, and we recorded a little improvisation of drones inside. We drove to the south coast of Snæfellsnes and stopped at Arnarstapi, with its cute café. Here the coastline has an interesting sound. The way the waves recede on the polished pebbles of the cove creates tinkling sounds, almost like a glass wind chime, but multiplied by one Not long ago, I was packing my travel bag into the back of my friends’ four-wheel drive SUV as we all headed out for an extended week navigating the Ring Road. I was somewhere between a tourist and a resident, living in Iceland on a year- long fellowship, and on my boss’s advice, I decided to take my first months to sightsee before the “real work” started. We left in October, myself (a composer) and two other Amer- icans, an artist and her writer-poet fiancée. It was a very artsy carful. Being a musician and very inspired by the sounds of nature, I wanted to hear for myself all that the country had to offer, and perhaps be inspired to make my own music in response to my travels. I carefully squeezed my tiny Zoom H-4 digital recorder into my coat pocket just in case anything might sound cool enough to document, and packed a small camera anticipating I’d take about one million pictures. EXPLORING ICELAND, THE FAROE ISLANDS OR GREENLAND IT´S EASY WITH AIR ICELAND ÞÓRSHÖFN VOPNAFJÖRÐUR TÓRSHAVN ILULISSAT ITTOQQORTOORMIIT NUUK KULUSUK NARSARSUAQ GRÍMSEY ÍSAFJÖRÐUR AKUREYRI EGILSSTAÐIR REYKJAVÍK GREENLAND ICELAND FAROE ISLANDS You can hear the results of Nathan’s field recordings and improvi- sations on 'The Origin of the Sun and Moon,' the album he released as a travel diary. nathan-hall.net. Iceland’s Sonic Landscape A composer’s road trip around the country Words & Photos Nathan Hall Mývatn Photo Axel Sigurðarson
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