Uploaded July 2019 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
crosstowntraffic2018.wordpress.com
This presentation took place as part of the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, which was hosted by The University of Huddersfield from September 3 - 5 2018. This event combined the IASPM UK&Ireland Biennial Conference, the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), an ISMMS conference, and the additional participation of Dancecult.
A recurrent theme within popular music studies has been discussion of how the field can integrate different disciplines and professions, for example exploring both music and its context; involving both practitioners and researchers; and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Many different issues make such approaches challenging, and various different popular music focused subject organisations have developed somewhat independently of one another. This conference brought four such groups together, to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and encourage crosstalk.
/// SUPPORT
Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), University of Huddersfield research.hud.ac.uk/pmsrg/#
Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI), University of Huddersfield
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch (IASPM UK & Ireland)
iaspm.org.uk
Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
artofrecordproduction.com
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) studies into electronic dance music culture
dancecult-research.net
International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)
metalstudies.org
/// ORGANIZERS
IASPM UK&I: Rupert Till
ARP: Katia Isakoff, Shara Rambarran
ISMMS: Karl Spracklen
Dancecult: Graham St. John
University of Huddersfield: Jan Herbst, Austin Moore, Lisa Colton, Toby Martin, Catherine Haworth, Mark Mynett
/// CREDITS
This online project was edited, collated, and made available online by Chris McConnell, Jack Zissell, and Colin Frank.
/// PRESENTATION DETAILS
Volcanic Sounds of End-Times: Envisioning the Anthropocene from Iceland
Tore Størvold - Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Musicology, University of Oslo
Email: tore.storvold@imv.uio.no
/// ABSTRACT
When the volcano under the glacier Eyjafjällajökull erupted in 2010, the ash fall disrupted the patterns of mobility that has become the norm in contemporary society. Suddenly, millions of people were affected by the non-human agents of the world, revealing the entanglements of geology and the social in everyday practices like air travel. The most recent album by acclaimed Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, titled Kveikur (“fuse”), was composed and recorded following the volcanic eruption, coinciding with a wider publicizing of the scientific term Anthropocene, heralding a new understanding of humans as a geophysical force. This paper bridges ecocriticism and popular music analysis. I consider the music of Sigur Rós in light of discussions of musical aesthetics in the Anthropocene and cultural representations of environmental apocalypse. Centering on the track “Brennisteinn” (“Sulphur”) and its accompanying music video, I illuminate the musical and audiovisual strategies used in its production. The analysis focuses on the sonic properties and cultural meanings of “dark” timbres. Drawing on goth, industrial and black metal styles, “Brennisteinn” features lyrical, sonic and audiovisual references to the apocalyptic. Apocalyptic visions contain different ways of imagining the causes, actions and effects of a world out of balance. Aesthetics enable or influence modes of engagement with a horizon of possible futures in the Anthropocene. With its emphasis on the volcanic, the apocalypse of Sigur Rós reveal the human species as implicated in geological time-scales, unsettling habitual modes of relating to the environment from a position of technical mastery.
crosstowntraffic2018.wordpress.com
This presentation took place as part of the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, which was hosted by The University of Huddersfield from September 3 - 5 2018. This event combined the IASPM UK&Ireland Biennial Conference, the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), an ISMMS conference, and the additional participation of Dancecult.
A recurrent theme within popular music studies has been discussion of how the field can integrate different disciplines and professions, for example exploring both music and its context; involving both practitioners and researchers; and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Many different issues make such approaches challenging, and various different popular music focused subject organisations have developed somewhat independently of one another. This conference brought four such groups together, to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and encourage crosstalk.
/// SUPPORT
Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), University of Huddersfield research.hud.ac.uk/pmsrg/#
Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI), University of Huddersfield
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch (IASPM UK & Ireland)
iaspm.org.uk
Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
artofrecordproduction.com
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) studies into electronic dance music culture
dancecult-research.net
International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)
metalstudies.org
/// ORGANIZERS
IASPM UK&I: Rupert Till
ARP: Katia Isakoff, Shara Rambarran
ISMMS: Karl Spracklen
Dancecult: Graham St. John
University of Huddersfield: Jan Herbst, Austin Moore, Lisa Colton, Toby Martin, Catherine Haworth, Mark Mynett
/// CREDITS
This online project was edited, collated, and made available online by Chris McConnell, Jack Zissell, and Colin Frank.
/// PRESENTATION DETAILS
Volcanic Sounds of End-Times: Envisioning the Anthropocene from Iceland
Tore Størvold - Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Musicology, University of Oslo
Email: tore.storvold@imv.uio.no
/// ABSTRACT
When the volcano under the glacier Eyjafjällajökull erupted in 2010, the ash fall disrupted the patterns of mobility that has become the norm in contemporary society. Suddenly, millions of people were affected by the non-human agents of the world, revealing the entanglements of geology and the social in everyday practices like air travel. The most recent album by acclaimed Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, titled Kveikur (“fuse”), was composed and recorded following the volcanic eruption, coinciding with a wider publicizing of the scientific term Anthropocene, heralding a new understanding of humans as a geophysical force. This paper bridges ecocriticism and popular music analysis. I consider the music of Sigur Rós in light of discussions of musical aesthetics in the Anthropocene and cultural representations of environmental apocalypse. Centering on the track “Brennisteinn” (“Sulphur”) and its accompanying music video, I illuminate the musical and audiovisual strategies used in its production. The analysis focuses on the sonic properties and cultural meanings of “dark” timbres. Drawing on goth, industrial and black metal styles, “Brennisteinn” features lyrical, sonic and audiovisual references to the apocalyptic. Apocalyptic visions contain different ways of imagining the causes, actions and effects of a world out of balance. Aesthetics enable or influence modes of engagement with a horizon of possible futures in the Anthropocene. With its emphasis on the volcanic, the apocalypse of Sigur Rós reveal the human species as implicated in geological time-scales, unsettling habitual modes of relating to the environment from a position of technical mastery.
