Reykjavík Grapevine - jul 2021, Qupperneq 18

18The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 07— 2021Music
gpv.is/music
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To The
Li!hthouse
Amiina’s beacon shines bri!ht with their new EP
‘Pharolo!y’
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photos: Art Bicnick
Album
Check out ‘Pharology’ on all
platforms and pick up the LP on
amiina.bandcamp.com
Pharology: the scientific study of
lighthouses.
It’s a rather archaic term, for as ra-
dar and other navigation tools took
over the guidance of ships, those
who specialised in the use and up-
keep of lighthouses became few-
er and fewer. Nowadays, the term
‘pharologist’ is used mainly by afi-
cionados fascinated by the niche
buildings—many of which stand
empty or repurposed.
Quartet Amiina can be counted
among their ranks. Enamoured of
the historical buildings' utilitarian
uses and romanticism, the quartet
is back with the new EP ‘Pharology’,
an expansive, escapist effort that
walks the line between experimen-
tal, ambient, subversive neo-clas-
sical and prelude to
the impossible—an
EP that’s as varied
as the ocean by
which it was writ-
ten.
Saving souls
‘Pharology’ is ac-
t ua l ly A m i i na’s
s e c o n d l i g h t -
h o u s e - i n s p i r e d
effort, following
2013’s ‘The Light-
house Project’, which saw the band
journey across Iceland to perform
at various lighthouses and other
unusual locales.
“Travelling in Iceland, you see
these lighthouses in barren places
and that’s in a sense very poetic and
grabbing as an image. But the pur-
pose of the lighthouse is always to
get light out there even though no
one is looking. It might actually be
saving someone,” founding Amiina
member María Huld Markan Sig-
fúsdóttir explains. “Someone close
to us came up with the metaphor
that artists are our own kind of
lighthouses. We pour out [our art]
and just hope that someone is lis-
tening.”
She smiles. “It’s maybe not as
dramatic as saving souls.”
Musical aids to
navigation
The direct origins of ‘Pharology’,
though, come from a commission
Amiina received in 2019 for a sound
installation at the Nakkehoved
lighthouse in Denmark. Inspired by
the pitches created by the rotation
of the cone at the top of the light-
house, the group made a harmonic
series that changed over each me-
andering level of the building. This
series eventually
coalesced into the
new EP.
Along with fall-
ing back in love
with the remote
rom a nt ic i sm of
l ighthouses, the
Danish instal la-
tion also found the
group fascinated
with its compatri-
ots in guidance,
morse code. In fact,
‘Pharology’ begins
with a beat that is the actual morse
code for Nakkehoved.
“Morse codes were a creative
spark for us,” María Huld contin-
ues. Bandmate Gu!mundur Vignir
Karlsson nods. “We played around
and found a morse code that works
as a rhythmic ostinato through
the song, which is the name of the
lighthouse,” he explains.
The song in question—“Aton”—
opens the album with a rumbling,
tribal beat that almost feels made
for a modern dance piece. It’s a piece
that buries deep into the primitive
part of your soul—a beautiful il-
lustration of the divinity of fight or
flight. “When we got home, we saw
that the music was like a journey.
‘Aton’ is quite aggressive and has a
raw feeling of danger,” María Huld
says.
“It’s like a storm. Aton—aid to
navigation,” Vignir adds.
From there, the journey con-
tinues into the world of the stilled
sea. “‘Refraction’, which is next,
is the bending of the light inside
the glass, a serenic pause of space.
Then ‘Beacon’, the last song, is the
tower and the guidance,” María
Huld concludes.
The return to a safe
harbour
The album is truly an affecting one.
It’s not easy listening, filled at all
times with a sense of longing and
unrelenting solitude. It’s the music
of a rugged lighthouse keeper—one
who has retreated from society in
unfaltering service to safety.
And for Amiina, it was both a
celebration of the lighthouse as a
symbol and also a tribute to the
institution as a lost art form and
branch of science.
“It was fascinating to go through
the [history of the] different sig-
nals, how the projecting of the light
has changed from being just fire
into the single cones of glass. Also,
how through time, the rotation
and mechanism of the signal has
evolved,” María Huld explains. “And
especially in Iceland, how impor-
tant these places were and are for
navigating.”
“The only points of reference to
a safe harbour,” Vignir concludes.
“Artists are our
own kind of
lighthouses.
We pour out
[our art] and
just hope that
someone is
listening.”
Amiina in front of the band's dream studio