manifestation of icelandic-ness in the music documentary film „heima“ of the popular icelandic...
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Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Philosophische Fakultät III Institut für Musikwissenschaft SE: From Sámi Joik to Viking Metal: What’s nordic about nordic music Dozent: Dr. Thomas Hilder Studentin: Aikaterini Giampoura E-Mail: [email protected]
Manifestation of Icelandic-ness in the music documentary film „Heima“ of the popular Icelandic band Sigur Rós
Contents 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………2 1.1 Borealism and the Icelanders: Past and present stereotypes…………………2 2. Sigur Rós…………………………………………………………………..5 2.1 Music………………………………………………………………………....6 2.2 Filming “Heima”……………………………………………………………..7 3. Scene analysis……………………………………………………………..9 3.1 The People……………………………………………………………………9 3.1.1 Reconstructing the historical continuity……………………………...10 3.1.2 A contemporary Icelandic Volksgemeinschaft……………………….13 3.2 The Land……………………………………………………………………..16 3.2.1 ‘Soundification’ and visualisation of Iceland………………………..16 3.2.2 Environmental awareness and activism……………………………...17 4. Conclusions………………………………………………………………..18 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………...…23 Eigenständigkeitserklärung
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1. Introduction My aim in this assignment is to find out how the idea of Icelandic-ness is audio-
visually presented in the film “Heima”, and how this leads towards the construction of
a contemporary Icelandic identity. More precisely: how and to what degree past
stereotypes about Iceland and its people are integrated into a contemporary narrative
about the Icelandic identity, while at the same time additional features in audio-visual
form function cumulative, creating new common places and reinitiating a
contemporary image of Iceland and Icelandic nationality. In what extend and how
does the idea of „Otherness“ play an important role in the formation of Icelandic
identity. My idea is to use the music documentary film as a research field, in an effort
to make an approach of Icelandic-ness from the Sigur Rós perspective, supported
mainly by the film’s audio-visual material and its “social actors/performers”
(musicians, narrator, random people appearing etc.), and then compare it with the
general stereotypes about Iceland and the North in general.
1.1. Borealism and the Icelanders: Past and Present stereotypes In this opening chapter I will be focusing on stereotypes concerning the North. As
stereotypes will be considered all those beliefs and thought-patterns, “fixed and
oversimplified image[s] or idea[s]”1 referring to the North and the northern people in
general. The concept of Borealism, according to Schram, suggests a north-south
discourse, similarly to the pre-existing term of Orientalism, which stands for the east-
west dichotomy.2 Historically, there have been two major contradicting ideas about
the North according to which, cultural perceptions from “savage dystopia to
enlightened utopia” coexist, granting the concept of North a series of “extremes and
ambiguities”.3 Interestingly enough, in the early 20th century, during the Romantic
and Nationalistic period, ideas about the sovereignty of the Icelanders demanding
their independence from the Kingdom of Denmark, led to the degradation of the past
negative stereotype about the North. The supposed most barbaric lands of the Danish
colonies, with its wild, almost inhuman inhabitants,4 acquired gradually a rather
1 "Definition of Stereotype in English." Stereotype: Definition of Stereotype in Oxford Dictionary (British & World English). N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Aug. 2013. 2 Kristinn Schram. Borealism. Folkloristic perspectives on transnational performances and the Exoticism of the North. PhD, The University of Edinburgh, 2011, p. 99 ff 3 Schram (2011), p. 99 4 Schram (2011), p. 100-101
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positive image. Main reason for this turn was the pilgrimage tendency of former
eminent European and North American scholars, who were researching places still
“original and unspoiled by industrialization and big cities”.5 What we actually witness
here is the inversion of the idea of Wildness, moving from negative to a positive value.
The once negatively charged concept of the North, used gradually in correlation with
nature, freedom, cultural purity and uniqueness, transformed gradually the exoticised
image of the supposed uncivilized Icelanders into a “progressive, educated,
technologically advanced and strong” folk, producing this way a modern antipode to
the South.6
The most persistent stereotypes about the Icelanders are those that contribute
to the formation and perception of the Icelandic folk as an independent entity7 and
focus on the “land-nation-language” triptych.8 The most common contemporary
visual and literary representations of Icelanders are dominated by images of the
“bearded and weatherworn farmer” with “Nordic” features, sheep and barren
landscapes, seal hunters and menacing seas, 9 promoting in general the
“interconnectedness of the nation to the land”10 and forming eventually a conception
of the Icelandic self, which, according to the historian Sumarliði Ísleifsson, has been
stereotypically presented to remain unchanged over the centuries. 11 Moreover,
projecting the Icelandic past on the „Viking Image“ is believed by many to be a
historically erroneous construction of the Icelandic touristic industry. Nevertheless, it
is often the self-identification of the contemporary Icelanders with the Viking myth
and the supposed “forefathers’ lifestyle, upon which they irrationally base their
today’s success. 12 The idea of a collective heritage running the Icelandic generations
continuously13 forms for them a historical connection between their epic past of the
Icelandic Sagas and the present. On these grounds, the modern Icelandic language
constitutes a supporting element for this concept, as it is thought to have remained
more archaic, thus “purer”, in comparison to other living Germanic languages,14 and
5 cited after Sumarliði Ísleifsson, in: Schram (2011), p. 102 6 Schram (2011), p. 102-103 7 cited after Sumarliði Ísleifsson, in: Schram (2011), p. 106-107 8 Schram (2011), p. 104 9 Schram (2011), p. 106 10 Schram (2011), p. 104 11 Schram (2011), p. 106-107 12 Schram (2011), p. 107-108 13 Schram (2011), p. 109 14 Schram (2011), p. 104
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the Icelanders “came to be viewed as the guardians of the proto-language and ancient
culture of Northern peoples”.15
Consequences of modernization and globalization in Iceland have led to a
dipole of contrasting public opinions concerning environmental issues: on one hand,
the preservation of nature as much as possible and on the other, the exploitation of
nature to built up the country’s economy.16 The expression “pearls of nature” refers to
landscapes of Iceland inspired of the supposed places of the romanticized Saga Age.
Those images are often broadcasted from the Icelandic television, as authentic
Icelandic, in company of the national anthem.17 According to Dibben, environmental
politics and awareness in Iceland were formed gradually to an important element of
the Icelandic identity, especially after internationally known Icelandic musicians like
Björk or the music band Sigur Rós started referring to nature-nation issues in the
media, while attempting to integrate visual and sonic elements of the Icelandic nature
into their music.18 According to Björk’s concept of Icelandic-ness, the preservation of
the Icelandic nature and landscape is correlated to the maintaining of Icelandic
uniqueness, and consequently with the keeping of Icelandic identity,19 underlining in
her rhetoric an inter-dependency of nature and culture.20 So, within this frame, images
of barren landscapes with Icelandic sheep and horses, waterfalls, geysers, glaciers and
volcanic eruptions next to high developed technology in the modern fishing industry,
renewal power units and high digital literacy among its population have become
repeated clichés when presenting Iceland, connecting the place to the concept of
‘extremity and balance’: the land of ice and fire, nature and technology, wild and
civilized, traditional and modern, they all seem to work together in perfect harmony.
The concept of ‘seeing balance in the extremes’ doesn’t function merely as self-
projected identity, like in the case of Björk for example,21 but also constitutes an
assumingly successful selling product within the touristic industry of Iceland.22
15 Schram (2011), p. 102 16 Schram (2011), p. 104 17 Schram (2011), p. 110 18 Nicola Dibben (a). “Nature and Nation: National Identity and Environmentalism in Icelandic Popular Music Video and Music Documentary”, in: Ethnomusicology Forum 18:1, Routledge, published online: 28.5.2009, (retrieved 17 June 2013), p. 136-137 19 Dibben (2009, a), p. 131 20 Schram (2011), p. 110 21 Nicola Dibben (b). Björk. Indiana University Press. Bloomington, Indianapolis 2009, p. 97 22 A very stereotypical presentation of Iceland offers the Discovery Channel Documentary „Iceland“, a film made mainly to give touristic information: "Iceland - Ultimate Journeys - Discovery Channel Documentary." YouTube. YouTube, 25 Feb. 2013. Web. 18 Aug. 2013
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In the field of art Michael Tucker, based on Glenn Gould’s “notions of north as a zone
of musical creativity” and as far as the popular music is concerned, he “suggests three
aspects to the northern topography of the label”:23
i. “experience of the space, time and light capable of evoking the sublime [...]“
ii. „a philosophical and existential quest for meaning [...]“
iii. „a sense of what the Finnish poet Anselm Hollo has called „the solid human
realness of the Nordic“ combined with the expressions of an “intensive visionary
mind.“”24
Moreover, Tucker argues that in the Nordic folk music traditions there are certain
generic elements to be found, like: “a prevalent sense of melancholy, often using
minor keys“, and citing the pianist Jon Balke he also mentions “the need for a space
of reflexion after a statement has been made.””25
2. Sigur Rós Sigur Rós is an Icelandic “traditional all-male guitar-based rock quartet”26 originally
formed in 1994. During its almost twenty years of activity some band members have
been replaced, while at the moment the band tours as a trio.27 During the filming of
“Heima” the band consisted of Jón Thor Birgisson (vocals, guitars), Orri Páll Dýrason
(drums), Georg Holm (bass) and Kjartan Sveinsson (keyboards). As for 2013 the band
has released seven studio albums and its musical style is often labelled “ambient post-
rock”.28
The band, in their older official website, 29 is presented as being
„discovered“ and “snapped up” around 2000 by a UK record label -right after the
Icelandic release of their second album- and underwent a “frantic hunt” from major
US labels, where “large quantities of cash were offered”. According to the website,
the band finally made a deal with MCA records, the label “which gave them most
23 Tony Mitchell. “SIGUR RÓS’S HEIMA: An Icelandic Phychogeography“, in: Transforming Cultures eJournal, Vol. 4 No 1, April 2009, p. 177 24 Mitchell, (2009), p. 177 25 Mitchell, (2009), p. 177 26 Eduard D. Miller. “The Nonsensical Truth of the Falsetto Voice: Listening to Sigur Rós”, in: Popular Musicology Online, Issue 2, ‘Identity and Performance’, published online: 2003 (23 Sept. 2013) 27 "Sigur Ros." Myspace. N.p., n.d. 2013. Web.18 Aug. 2013 28 Mitchell, (2009), p. 181 29 "Sigur Rós - about." Sigur Rós - about. N.p., n.d. 2000-2013. Web. 18 Aug. 2013
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artistic freedom”. Already from the first paragraphs of their bio they are presented as
a “non-commercial” local band, that wouldn’t sacrifice their “freedom” for the sake of
economic profit. Through these lines the image of an ‘independent group of artists
experimenting with music’ is gradually synthesised.
Interestingly enough in the bio one can read as well about the high commercial
success of their albums, their position in the charts, the attention and the promotion on
behalf of the American press, or even a reference on their participation in the
Hollywood bowl. In other words the band was positively correlated to all those
popular institutions that constitute a proof of commercial success. There is actually a
discrepancy between the promoted “non-commerciality” of the band and its actual
position in the popular music scene.
Additional to music and record releases the bio also dedicates a big paragraph
on their award winning video productions, establishing this way a multi-artistic image
of a band that takes advantage of all the technological possibilities in order to create
art and spread ideas.
2.1 Music The music of Sigur Rós bears characteristics of both rock and electronic music: guitar
based, keyboards, frequent cooperation with the string ensemble Amína, electronic
distortions along with beeps and buzzes and the extended use of glockenspiel, and
above all the characteristic falsetto vocals of their singer.30 The use of unconventional
instruments, like for instance a children’s toy piano 31 or unusual performing
technics32 belong as well to the general approach of Sigur Rós to experiment
musically with various acoustic timbres. The common compositional method of Sigur
Rós tends to be that of improvisation over short repetitive melodic folk-like33 phrases
that rest on a respectively simple harmonic structure (“simple keyboard chord
progressions”)34 lacking cadential progression until the very end of the tracks.35 Sigur
Rós’ songs therefore tend to be long in duration and slow in tempo,36 “a lush mix of
30 Dibben (2009, a), p. 138 31 Sigur Rós. Heima. DVD. Dir.: Dean DeBlois. Distr.: D&E Entertainment (2006, USA, theatrical), EMI Music (2007, Finland, DVD), EMI Records (2007, UK, DVD), 2007, DVD1 (00:17:04) 32 playing guitar with a violin bow; Miller (2003) 33 Miller (2003) 34 Miller (2003) 35 Dibben (2009, a), p. 138 36 Dibben (2009, a), p. 138
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ecstasy and melancholia”, 37 communicating a sense of “stasis”: 38 music alters
between the same limited palette of sonorities, while the sense of movement is
achieved mainly on local level through the exploitation of short, harmonically
unresolved melodic fragments creating this way dissonances between melodic line
and pedal.39 This slow tempo pace of their songs often includes “sudden bursts of
volume, generally simple dynamics and considerable intensity”40 “that can build to
thunderous symphonic crescendos complete with pounding drums, supplemented by a
frantic string section”.41
Almost all of their lyrics are written and sung in Icelandic. In their entire
discography however there are also a few songs available,42 which are performed
entirely or partially in Hopelandic, a fantastic language invented by their singer that
sounds similar to Icelandic.43
2.2 Filming “Heima” After 13 months of touring around the world for the promotion of their album
“Takk…”, Sigur Rós gave in the summer of 2006 a series of free and unannounced
concerts on various locations in Iceland,44 which were filmed and constituted the core
material of making the movie “Heima”, Icelandic for “at home” or “homeland” and
the first ever film of Sigur Rós.45 The idea of making a film about the band was not
new, however the decision of shooting the film in Iceland was conceptualized and
developed a lot later.46
According to the website, Sigur Rós gained in some way significance as
unifiers of the nation during the Icelandic tour: the ones who managed to bring people
of all ages together, under the same musical event.47 Morgunblandid, the biggest
37 Miller (2003) 38 Dibben (2009, a), p. 138 39 Dibben (2009, a), p. 139 40 Mitchell (2009), p. 181 41 Miller (2003) 42 a list with information about the song titles and the lyrics under "Sigur Rós - Lyrics." Sigur Rós - Lyrics. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2013 43 Miller (2003) 44 DVD1 (00:01:20) 45 "Sigur Rós - Discography » Heima." Sigur Rós - Discography » Heima. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013 46"Sigur Ròs : Heima." Sigur Ròs : Heima. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013 47 The open-door policy played obviously an important role; „Sigur Ròs : Heima." Sigur Ròs : Heima.
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national daily newspaper, intensified this idea by giving it “semi-mythical status”, as
in the site stated.48
The realisation of “Heima” has been based partially on previous films. Music
documentaries like the 1959 “Jazz on a summer day”49 directed by Aram Avakian and
Bert Stern or even the Adrian Mabens’s 1972 “Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii”,50 as
well as the Nicolas Roeg’s 1971 novel based drama “Walkabout”51 functioned for
Sigur Rós as source of inspiration and reference point when dealing with technical,
direction and photography issues. Moreover, in order to avoid depicting the usual
visual clichés about Iceland, instead of using American or European directors an all-
Icelandic crew was initially preferred: the Sigur Rós “wanted Iceland to be
portrayed…how it is, which is a harsh and reasonably unforgiving place, even in the
summer, and for the way Iceland looked”, making at the same time reference to the
film “Walkabout”, where Australia is depicted as an unfriendly place where “you
wouldn’t want to get lost in”.52
The Canadian director of the film Dean DeBlois53 and the English editor Nick
Fenton54 didn’t get involved in the film until all the tour-material had been filmed.
Their experienced and commercial approach provided with the basic narrative
concept that could connect the plethora of “pretty performances” together in a single
story, and which was missing until then.55
The music was recorded entirely on location without any later addition of
overdubs. Consequently, in these particular recordings one can experience the space
acoustic of a specific location (e. g inside a derelict herring oil tank, or the open air
one-mic recording at a dam protest camp) along with the Iceland’s nature’s sounds
integrated into their music (birds, windblown, water etc.).56 That gave a rather
experimental sense to the entire project, which, according to the manager of Sigur Rós,
48 "Sigur Ròs : Heima." Sigur Ròs : Heima. 49 "Jazz on a Summer's Day." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013; Inspiration for the extensive filming of the audience members in „Heima“ for example derives from this film, DVD1 (00:12:40) 50 "Echoes: Pink Floyd." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013 51 "Walkabout." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013 52 DVD1 (00:25:15) 53 "Dean DeBlois." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013 54 "Nick Fenton." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013 55 "Sigur Ròs : Heima." Sigur Ròs : Heima. 56 "Sigur Ròs : Heima." Sigur Ròs : Heima.
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is a movie “concentrated on the performances and the much-vaunted relationship
between Sigur Rós and the land they come from”.57
The band’s wish (also inspired from the framing approach of the artists in the
film “Jazz on a summer day”) was to present a different perspective of a Sigur Rós
show, by minimizing the audience-performers distance and getting people “much
closer to the band” without “breaking the spell” at the same time. So, a lot of close-
ups on the performers are included, while overall or general stage shots are limited.58
As their manager mentions, it was the “intimacy of a Sigur Rós show” that he initially
wanted for that film, “rather than the scale of a Sigur Rós show”.59
3. Scene analysis The analysis of the film will be divided into two main categories that focus on the
Icelandic people and the Icelandic landscape as central discourse issues respectively.
Additionally to the visual and audio material presented in the film, I will be acquiring
information from the narration of the band’s manager John Best, whose comments
appear extensive throughout the entire film in English subtitles, and function not only
explanatory or collaterally to the scenes but also as additional material concerning the
band, the land and the filming process. The analysis moreover will not follow the
chronological narration of the film, but the references to specific scenes will be based
on their affiliation to the respective topics in discussion.
3.1 The People Driven from the film “Jazz on a summer day” and the conviction that “a lot of sense
of place [in that film] is obtained from crowd shots of people“,60 Sigur Rós have
incorporated extended scenes in the film depicting audience members61 and especially
children. In an effort to correlate visually their music with the innocence and purity, a
lot of children-scenes are included showing kids often in open spaces by the sea or in
the countryside, playing and running. Additionally, the juxtaposition of children-
57 DVD1 (00:30:57) 58 DVD1 (00:13:38) 59 DVD1 (00:39:50) 60 Manager’s comments DVD1 (00:13:19) 61 This conscious decision of the band and apparently of its manager, is additionally supported by their notion expressing that the audience “almost as important as looking at the band”, DVD1 (00:12:15)
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scenes with the portrayal of their (shy!) frontman Jonsi singing with his high non-
male childish-like voice contributes to this idea.62
On this chapter I will refer to some characteristic scenes in the film, where
people seem to play the central role in the Sigur Rós concept of Icelandic-ness.
Interesting to mention here is, that Sigur Rós tend to identify themselves not only with
the contemporary people of their country but also with the past Icelandic tradition and
their ancestors.
3.1.1 Reconstructing the historical continuity Striking is the fact that the concerts took place as well in remote locations in Iceland
with few or almost no inhabitants left today. For every new concert’s location appears
a scene where a hand writes in black liquid paint the Icelandic name of the place. This
structural motive of “naming”63 appears from the beginning and lasts throughout the
whole film, establishing very early a firm connection of the place with the Sigur Rós
music. This artifice gives the impression of a fairy-tail that’s about to start: the “story”
of the Sigur Rós’ Icelandic tour therefore begins unfolding the Icelandic map and
„conveying a history of habitation through the sites visited“.64
“The link between music and land as a historic entity belonging to the
Icelandic people” mentioned by Dibben,65 is depicted by various scenes and concert
locations throughout the film: like for instance in Djupavik, the old fish factory of the
twenties whose infrastructure is now rusting in “total isolation”,66 and “only two
people live there year round”.67 This thematic sequence consists of a combination of
b/w footage of the previous high period of the fish village, showing fishermen on
boats and their rich catches, an active and constant come-and-go of people to the
factory on one hand, and on the other, contrasting images of the present state of the
place, a colourful documentation of the stillness and abandonment. During the first
footage-scenes a traditional vivid fisherman’s song from an old recording is heard,
while gradually a visual and acoustic transition to the present takes place: still images
of the interior of the fish factory are shown while the fisherman’s song fades into the
62 DVD1 (00:22:00 and on) 63 Dibben (2009, a), p. 135 64 Dibben (2009, a), p. 135 65 Dibben (2009, a), p. 135 66 Jonsi’s words; DVD1 (00:48:40) 67 Manager’s comments in subtitles; DVD1 (00:49:56)
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slow tempo sound of Sigur Rós. The music transmits natural echo, “church-like
acoustics”,68 since the recording was made inside the empty fish oil tank. The colour-
limited b/w footage of the lively old days continuously contrasting with the unlively
but in full colour contemporary shots of the location conveys a sense of irony, while
the melancholic slow tempo music of Sigur Rós creates an sonic atmosphere of
bittersweet nostalgia.
The fact that the band decides to have their concert on this specific location, in
order to revive it for the sake of the old days or reconstruct a bit of the past shine, as
Orri, the band’s percussionist, mentions: “to bring life into the place again, for a short
moment, one night”,69 could be understood as if Sigur Rós are paying homage to their
ancestors by dedicating their songs to them. The concert inside the fish factory
functions therefore as a symbolic bridge to the past: the gathering of the audience
could also be perceived as a gesture that reconstructs and revives momentarily the
feeling of the old community of people on its very same ground.
The connection to the present is nevertheless achieved by a later thematic
sequence in the film, which can be as well interpreted as an attempt of the band not
only to construct a symbolic bridge to the past, but also to unite practically the older
with the younger generations, the traditional with the modern people, to fuse the past
with the present of Iceland and present it in a new creative context. In the field of
music this is achieved through the artistic collaboration of the Sigur Rós with Steindór
Andersen,70 a celebrant singer of Icelandic rhymes and thus keeper of the old
tradition.71 The Sigur Rós are depicted as “definitely influenced”72 by the traditional
music of Iceland, while at the same time exploring and experimenting with Rimur
(the old chanting style) and finally making their own kind of music, which
nevertheless in this case incorporates the old tradition.73 Visually this “Sigur Rós’ link
back to the past” part of the film is supported by an open-air shot depicting a small
village’s pagan choir singing in traditional costumes in front of a long rock line
68 Manager’s comments in subtitles; DVD1 (00:50:36) 69 DVD1 (00:54:08) 70 DVD1 (01:04:24) 71 Interesting here is to mention that Steindór, a former fisherman, has certain physical analogies to the mediated stereotypical and exoticized image of the old Icelander described in Schram: “an archaic, bearded and weatherworn farmer […]“; Schram (2011), p. 106 72 Manager’s comments in subtitles; DVD1 (01:02:10) 73 This refers to a „classical“ 70-minute song of Sigur Rós named “Odin’s Raven Magic”, where Steindór sings the lead-vocals, filmed in 2004 in Paris but not yet released; DVD1 (01:04:20)
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(situated just over the Europe-America rift) and an indoor shot of a traditional
Þorrablót feast served for the whole community to enjoy.74
Metaphysical aspects concerning the Sigur Rós’ religious beliefs and their
stage experience are elaborately described at the last sequence in the film concerning
the great Reykjavik concert. Their affiliation to Paganism (or more likely
Neopaganism, if we want to specify it as a 20th century new religious movement) and
consequently to Iceland’s indigeneity and it’s ancient pre-Christian past is depicted
while they ask Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, musician and head priest of the
Ásatrúarfélagið Pagan church in Reykjavik, “to intercede on our behalf with the gods
and ask them to keep the rain at bay, so we didn’t have to play to a soggy, cold,
unhappy crowd. And he managed to succeed. It rained before and after but not during,
so that was a good intercession”.75 Later in the same sequence members of the band
convey their experience on stage during the Reykjavik performance. Jonsi’s sense of
floating,76 Georg’s trance-like feeling77 and Orri’s perception of the show as a
communal experience,78 together with the manager’s comment about Sigur Rós’
“terrifying apocalyptic music”79 create the impression that the music of Sigur Rós can
as well turn into a religious and transcendental experience, 80 to a kind of
contemporary ritual between the band and its audience. Of course this is very strongly
audio-visually supported through the musical outburst on stage during a performance
of the song “Untitled #8“ (aka Pop Song): 81 persistent rhythmic patterns on
percussions, short repetitive phrases on strings and synthesiser, guitars, and the
persistent sighing-figure of the castrato-like vocals, and the deployment of a generally
rather loud and full sound. Moreover, the very quick and flashy visuals projected on a
gauze curtain in front of the band (which by the way tends to turn the stage in to a
74 DVD1 (01:03:18) 75 Manager’s comments DVD1 (01:21:42) 76 „yeah I think on stage, when everything is how it should be, like good sound and like and everything feels right, this kind of float, and then it’s just like the best feeling ever, to sing for people and it’s like, actually don’t know, you sing obviously this kind of totally empty headed, and it’s like kind of floating then“ DVD1 (01:20:38) 77 „I sort of start playing and I remember the first two-three songs, and then I [...] sort of wake up in the last song, just before everything goes crazy [...]“, DVD1 (01:20:04) 78 „[...] like a mould you get into, together kind of, doing the same thing, really nice feeling“, DVD1 (01:20:19) 79 DVD1 (01:28:26) 80 Mitchel in connection to the audience refers to „the transportation and transformation of consciousness involved in experiencing Sigur Rós’ music“; Mitchell, (2009), p. 193 81 DVD1 (01:23:25)
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huge video-art) highlight the constant crescendo of the music, creating an even more
dramatic and moving experience.
3.1.2 A contemporary Icelandic Volksgemeinschaft Very often in the film one can notice that a great part of the Sigur Rós audience
consists of families with kids. It is not unfamiliar for them as three out of four
members of the band are married and have families of their own.
Embracing older and traditional values, like the value of family or the value of
slowness, is an idea significantly present in the film and is very elaborate depicted in
the Gamla Borg indoor series of the 2007 complementary shots. Gamla Borg is a
restaurant approximately an hour away outside Reykjavik, where a casual “family and
friends” coffee gathering is documented.82 Camera moves slowly portraying family
members and friends, gradually introduced to the viewers by the manager’s comments,
enjoying coffee and cakes over casual chats etc., close shots on the band members
moving slowly as if scanning the scenery, conveying a very warm, cosy and peaceful
family atmosphere, all underlined by the slow tempo acoustic performance of the
song “Von”, one of the first Sigur Rós songs from 1997. During the entire sequence
there are frequent references to the old Icelandic tradition, like for instance the
stylistic reference to the Icelandic jumper,83 or by mentioning some of the Sigur Rós
lifestyle habits like wearing themselves the Icelandic jumper, or smoking Icelandic
pipes etc., as the manager once again comments: “Sigur Rós have kind of, in a weird
sort of way, provided a route back to old Iceland”.84
The idea of the Icelandic big family is not supported only visually and through
footage, like for instance during the open-air concert in Asbyrgi national park in the
far north of Iceland (a reference to the Icelandic mythology is also here present, in
connection the horseshoe-like shape of the location).85 The place where the concert
was about to take place, turned into a huge camping. Groups of people approaching
with families and friends from everywhere and eventually packing the whole
countryside, provided a similarity to the colour-footage presented from the older days,
decades before, when another event “like a public holiday”86 took place there. People
82 DVD1 (00:38:55) 83 DVD1 (00:42:00) 84 DVD1 (00:42:08) 85 Manager’s comments; DVD1 (01:14:00 and on) 86 Comments from Amiina violinist; DVD1 (01:14:07)
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lying on the ground in friendly companies, eating, drinking, relaxing, kids flying red
kites, the band members hugging hard with Amína members and the rest of the
performers after the show, as that was probably going to be their last collaboration on
stage etc.
The idea of the extended family presented in the film is stated to constitute as
well an essential element in their artistic collaboration. A member of Amína
comments: “they [Sigur Rós] taught us a lot on doing things without speaking or
planning, just do“,87 while another one says „you know, it’s just eight people at work
really well together“,88 supporting at the same time Jonsi’s statement that comes right
after “yeah, it’s just one big family, like sisters and brothers”,89 highlighted by
outdoor shots of Sigur Rós and Amína members having fun playing some kind of
club-and-ball-sport together.
Interesting here is to refer at this point to Mitchel’s position of a generic
community spirit that is supposed to characterise Iceland and in particular the
country’s contemporary musical field: “a strong communal ethos of collaboration in
isolation, and a sense of common purpose, particularly in connection with ambient
electroacoustic production”. 90 Given the fact, that we cannot be sure that the
Icelanders have indeed such a strong communal sense in their everyday life, the
visualisation of them in the film as a united community could well be interpreted as a
projection from the Sigur Rós perspective of the music community on the Icelanders
in general, or simply as a presentation of the band’s wishful thinking on a national
scale. One way or another the impression of the Icelanders as a contemporary
Volksgemeinschaft (“a harmonious national community bound by blood and cultural
traditions”),91 is pretty striking in the film. Moreover the frequent appearing and
rehearsing of Sigur Rós in local community centres (appreciation and use of public
facilities), together with some spontaneous collaborations with local cultural societies,
like for instance with the brass band of the village Isafjördur,92 and the recurring
motive of “giving back to the people” are some structural elements in the film,
through which the impression of a strong bond between the musicians and the
87 DVD1 (00:44:20) 88 DVD1 (00:44:30) 89 DVD1 (00:44:34) 90 Mitchell, (2009), p. 185 91 Mary-Elisabeth O’Brien. Nazi Cinema as Enchantment. The Politics of Entertainment in the Third Reich. Camden House, NY 2006, p. 122 92 DVD1 (00:15:19)
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Icelandic community that supported them,93 is created. Georg, the bass player,
describes the Icelandic tour as something the Sigur Rós did and “gave back in a
way”,94 he expresses also a sense of duty for the Icelandic people: “something like we
had to do [...] play the show in small towns, for just the people there”.95 This idea
appears again towards the end the film as the manager makes his comments on the
Reykjavik concert „giving something back to the Icelandic people“.96 Moreover, this
concept has been also publicly supported from the press inside Iceland, as Maria the
violinist from Amína says “half way through, we saw in the paper this long article
about how a band was giving back, and also it was really noble because it’s all free
and all this effort of giving this concert was joining the soul of the Icelandic public, so
people had this great focus on something so positive“.97
Constant transition from stage scenes to nature’s detail frames, which
interpolate the sequence with durations of less than a second, is typical for the Sigur
Rós editing concept in this film, like for instance the black sand beach images from
the south of Iceland combined with stage scenes of the electronic introduction of a
song performance from the concert in Isafjördur, on the north-west of Iceland.98 The
scene continues with close ups on melting ice from the Jökulsarlon glacial lagoon also
from south while from the celeste99 comes a simple and repetitive melodic motive and
Jonsi starts to sing. It is interesting here to mention that the nature’s images don’t
derive always from the exact concert’s location, as it would be expected. The
juxtaposition of north-west with south images contributes assumingly to the
avoidance of communicating concrete or cliché images about a certain location and
minimises therefore the danger for the emergence of any sort of local patriotisms,
presenting this way Iceland as an inseparable unity of land and people.
93 Kjartan names them: „the people who [...] backed us up“; DVD1 (00:10:43) 94 DVD1 (00:11:23) 95 DVD1 (00:10:32) 96 DVD1 (01:19:43) 97 DVD1 (00:35:54); the idea of „uniting the Icelandic nation“ is mentioned again a lot later in the film by the manager in connection to the Reykjavik concert, the biggest ever in Iceland, with almost 10 per cent of the population attending, DVD1 (01:19:01). The next day „This whole tour ended up on the front pages“, even on the national newspaper and Sigur Rós „became almost like national heroes as a result of this gig, and the whole tour. The editorial was eulogising them for bringing the country together“ DVD1 (01:29:30), for a similar approach see also: Mitchell, (2009), p. 192 98 DVD1 (00:10:47) 99 The association between the ice and the metallic percussive sound of celesta can be seen as another „employment of historically established musical signifiers of nature“; for a similar example see Dibben (2009, a), p. 36
16
3.2 The Land A great focus in the film has been applied in constructing a direct correlation of the
music of Sigur Rós with their country of origin. This concept is cultivated intensively
through the frequent visual images of Iceland in the film accompanied by Sigur Rós
music, as well as through the open air concerts taking place on locations of natural
interest and historical significance, which are marked “through naming”,100 as earlier
discussed. Additionally this idea is musically promoted through the integration of
Icelandic sounds in their tracks (as well as into this movie) or by trying to “translate”
the Icelandic landscape into Sigur Rós sounds.
3.2.1 ‘Soundification’ and visualisation of Iceland Important here is to understand how Sigur Rós perceive the Icelandic landscape.
Kjartan, the keyboard player of the band for instance, perceives the Icelandic
landscape mainly as space, personal and physical space, “space is what we have here,
in our personal life and in the land, as well. Because it’s a small community, I think
people are unconsciously kind of aware of giving you space. So, I think we kinda
have to do that, because it is embedded in our souls”.101 Jonsi also likes to be able to
return “to all the space in Iceland”, after the crowed big cities they toured, in order to
“relax a little bit”.102 Apart from the people-shots, space is the other main theme
depicted visually in the movie. In contrast to the main principal in the film of framing
really close, long distance full-frame shots are deployed for depicting the vast
dimensions of the empty and sparsely inhabited Icelandic landscape.103
Iceland is situated in the middle of the ocean ridge and is still a land in
progress, meaning that its landscape morphology is still constantly changing. The
water-cycle theme occurring through the entire movie, credited as a director’s idea,104
functions possibly as analogy to the idea of continuous change, since in Iceland water
changes constantly and is to be found in all different forms: rain, snow, ice crystals,
humidity or steam, melting or freezing, hot or cold, sea or lake water etc. Additionally,
the only recorded sample not produced by Sigur Rós, which was however used in the
100 Dibben (2009, a), p. 135 101 DVD1 (00:14:30) 102 DVD1 (00:27:40) 103 e. g. DVD1 (01:00:48), (01:04:55) 104 DVD1 (00:09:25)
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movie, had been the sound of a glacier moving, of this huge body of dense ice,105
linked at the same time visually by the long shot of the glacier Vatnajökull.
Musically, the concept of space and that of slow constant change is produced
by Sigur Rós through long durations, minimal harmonic changes, short repetitive
motives and the element of stasis already described in chapter 2.1, creating an
impression of “journeying within a suspension of time and space”, as Dibben
mentions,106 or even conveying the sense of a “sonic geography”: “a region that lies
somewhere between place and culture, between human imagination and the world
around us”.107
The connection between Sigur Rós music, tradition and land is once again
indirectly emphasised by the portrayal of a folk artist called Palli, who makes musical
instruments and other artworks “from the stuff of Icelandic nature itself”,108 like wild
rhubarb (that his grandfather had put down a hundred years ago) and stones.109 The
band is depicted to play together on a stone marimba Palli had made, which they also
used as basic instrument for their 70-minute classical song back in 2004.110
3.2.2 Environmental awareness and activism This strong connection to the land, which is gradually cultivated throughout the film
gives the change to the band to express actively their political positions concerning
certain environmental issues in Iceland.
One of the Icelandic concerts in summer 2006 took place in a protest camp in
Karahnjukar highlands and constituted an action against the flooding of a huge area
due to the construction of a hydroelectric dam for an American aluminium factory.
That was one of the few performances of Sigur Rós that was actually announced on
the radio. However, given the political nature and the spontaneity of the decision to
play at the protest camp, the band’s crew refused to support them technically,
particularly since this stop was not included in the official Icelandic tour plan.111
105 DVD1 (01:01:30) 106 Dibben (2009, a), p. 138 107 John Luther Adams, cited in Mitchell, (2009), p. 190 108 Dibben (2009, a), p. 136 109 DVD1 (00:45:22); As Dibben very felicitous comments: „Pall Gudmundsson demonstrates the musical properties of rhubarb, explicitly linking music to nature, to a history of occupation of the land and to kinship“, Dibben (2009, a), p. 137 110 DVD1 (00:46:02) 111 Manager’s comments; DVD1 (00:55:00)
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In this thematic sequence the topic of environmental awareness in Iceland comes into
the foreground. Soon a historical continuity of struggles and the connection of
Iceland’s cultural community to environmental activism is revealed, as the manager
mentions the hunger strike Björk’s mother “famously went on” protesting against the
construction of this dam, conveying at the same time the long-time dimensions of this
issue through his phrase “And this has been rumbling on for years”.112 Georg, a few
seconds earlier, wonders about how “people can actually think about it [Iceland] as a
money-making scheme“.113 He continues and reveals the polarity of the Icelandic
people concerning the environmental issues and the industrial economy of Iceland:
“Most people are just divided into two groups, the people that just want to make lots
of money in a short time and then, the people that are thinking about the long-term,
you know, a fact on Iceland.”114 Interesting is also Hildur’ s opinion from Amína,
about the insufficient actions taken for the preservation of the Icelandic heritage “they
are not protecting it, enough, you know all these nice special things we have” and
about the contemporary architecture on the island: „you know like tearing down old
houses to build up really, in our opinion, ugly big houses, maybe pretending to be
something we are not”.115 Earlier in the movie, during the Gamla Borg sequence, the
manager brings up the same issue.116
Through their activism for the preservation of the older Icelandic landscape
Sigur Rós reinforce and punctuate their affinity with a past of a pre-industrialized
state of society. Based on this notion, Sigur Rós could consequently be characterised
as “traditionalists”, who position themselves consciously opposite the “modernists”.
4. Conclusions
The Icelandic-ness from the Sigur Rós perspective presented in this film lies not far
from the general idea of the Nordic. Certain topics as national identity (language,
history, landscape, religion) and environmental issues (activism, nature) constitute a
112 DVD1 (00:56:10) 113 DVD1 (00:55:15) 114 DVD1 (00:55:41) 115 DVD1 (00:55:21) 116 „And a lot of the sweeping away of Icelandic culture that had gone on with the knocking down of corrugated-iron houses to make way for what they considered to be a more modern society, there’s some sort of stand against that and, in a small part, Sigur Rós are part of that stand against that”, DVD1 (00:42:30)
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common ground of argument among the countries of the north in their attempt to
identify and distance themselves from the rest of Europe.
The idea of Iceland as „a unique place [...] on this planet“,117 an opinion often
expressed by the characters in the film, (a notion which by itself alone encloses a
certain degree of “Otherness”) corresponds however only partially to the stereotypical
conception of Iceland as a land of extremes (land of “ice and fire”). Given the “spatio-
temporal characteristics of their music and cinematography”,118 Sigur Rós construct a
new Topos of Icelandic-ness that is likely to suggest a spatialized concept of
Extremity, rather than a polarised one: it’s the idea of space that plays the creative
role in the music of Sigur Rós, rather than the idea of two contrasting principals that
give birth to a new (a “Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis” kind of model for instance).
The presentation of fishermens-footage from the first decades of the previous
century, the incorporation of the old Icelandic chanting in the music of Sigur Rós, the
embrace of religious practices of paganism, the presentation of folklore through the
pagan choir and the Þorrablót feast, as well as through acquiring the typical Icelandic
customs of dressing with the jumper and smoking the Icelandic pipe by the Sigur Rós
themselves, an impression of historical continuity is created (or according to
Hobsbawm: is invented)119 that links the past to the present and construct an image of
the band as carriers of the long Icelandic history and keepers of tradition, from which
they seem to obtain inspiration and create new forms of art. In such case, what Sigur
Rós seem to succeed in doing is: to create or possess a cultural identity by finding
themselves in history. 120 At the same time the concept of “family” that is so
intensively depicted in the film and finds its place among the musicians and
eventually as well as between the band and the Icelandic audience, conveys a
communal sense with a lot of religious aspects. Additionally it gives the impression of
a general solidarity ethos within the entire Icelandic society. The idea of “giving back”
seems to constitute the essential meaning and the fundament of making this Sigur Rós
film and also encapsulates in some way the paganistic principals of showing gratitude
to the mother earth, whereas, in the case of Sigur Rós, the Icelandic nation and land
play this role. At this point, the idea of Icelandic-ness could as well be signified as 117 Georg’s words, underlined by the manager’s comments as well, DVD1 (00:55:04) 118 Dibben (2009, a), p. 140 119 Eric Hobsbawm, Terence Ranger (ed.). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge 2000, p. 6 120 Kirsten Hastrup. Island of Anthropology. Studies in past and present Iceland. Odense University Press, Odense 1990, p. 134
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Topos of “returning”, a hypothesis which is not only intensified by the spoken words
of the characters but also visualised through a natural phenomenon: the idea of water
as a source of life and a vital element in the Icelandic natural morphology functions
like a parallelism of “returning” and contributes also as a connecting and structural
element in the narration of the film (water-circle theme). Especially the scenes at the
beginning of the film, where the water is depicted to move backwards,121 could be
symbolically understood as returning back in time, returning to the ancestors for
answers to life’s existential questions, or simply as “going home to Iceland”.122
By giving free concerts on various locations all over Iceland, Sigur Rós
succeeded in providing their audience (consisting that time of various ages and thus
generations) with a contemporary common experience, a shared activity to remember.
So, in this case, Sigur Rós can be perceived as a common denominator in the
construction of collective memory, and maybe in a paradoxical way, in the
construction of some sort of “shared history”.123 Besides, the fact that Sigur Rós has
been a pop-music group for about 20 years gives them the justification by reason of
their long time existence in the musical scenery to support such a concept. The
Icelandic press reception of “joining the nation” (which is mentioned both in the
beginning and in the end of the film functioning like narrative brackets, or like a
circle that closes) intensifies the idea of the “people’s community” promoted in the
film. However, this sort of emotionally charged “Icelander’ nationalism”, of seeing
“land and people as one whole, meant for each other for eternity”124 is a concept met a
lot earlier in the history of Iceland, namely in Jónas Hallgrímsson poets (1807-1845).
Moreover, the Sigur Rós-interpretation of history functions “as a legitimator of
action”125 (e. g in connection to the free open-air concerts on specific Icelandic
locations) or even as a “symbol of struggle” 126 (e. g in connection to their
involvement with environmental activism) and thus justifies the deployment of
historical footage in the film. In other words, their present actions get their meaning
(and their value respectively) from their connection to the history of Iceland.
121 DVD1 (00:06:05 for instance) 122 manager’s retrospective thoughts on the film; DVD1 (01:25:05) 123 According to Hastrup, the most accurate term for the self-definition of a „people“ as „ethnicity“ is through an idea of shared history; Hastrup, (1990), p. 124 124 Karlsson, Gunnar. A brief History of Iceland. (Trans. Anna Yates). Mal Og Menning, Iceland 2000, p. 39 125 Eric Hobsbawm, Terence Ranger (ed.), (2000), p. 12 126 Eric Hobsbawm, Terence Ranger (ed.), (2000), p. 12
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Moreover, since the commonplace idea of the past in the western cultures tends to
bear qualities such as of pure, wild, untouched, innocent etc. (common clichés
mentioned as well when referring to Iceland, as already expressed in chapter 1.1), the
stronger the correlation of Sigur Rós with the history of Iceland, the higher should be
regarded the degree of Icelandic-ness in their music.
Some of the aspects to the northern topography of the label by Michael Tucker,
as defined earlier, seem to find relatively ground in the audio-visual representation of
Sigur Rós in the film. Like for instance the aspect concerning “the experience of the
space, time and light capable of evoking the sublime [...]” is recreated in their spatio-
temporal musical structure and their projected visuals, while the aspect of
“philosophical and existential quest for meaning [...]“ is manifested through the
correlation of their music to the Icelandic history, land and nation. Additionally, “a
prevalent sense of melancholy” and “the need for a space of reflexion after a
statement has been made”, as generic elements present in the Nordic folk music
traditions argued by Tucker (chapter 1.1 as well), are also audio-visually supported in
the film through the long duration and the slow transformation of their songs, the
creation of “stasis” and the visual connection to a forgotten past or a sad and unlucky
(to Sigur Rós opinion) event, like for instance the abandoned and derelict locations in
Iceland.
By presenting themselves partly as traditional and by rejecting the part of
modernity that breaks the bonds with the past and constitutes an enemy to the
Icelandic heritage, Sigur Rós cultivate a concept of “Otherness” in form of
‘Resistance’, and dissociate themselves from the modern Icelandic society
("pretending to be something we are not”)127. Interesting here is to mention that the
concept of “Otherness” in the case of Sigur Rós is not constructed in discourse to the
non-Icelandic nations on grounds of language128 and customs (as it is presented in
Durrenbergen and Palsson),129 but it’s a self-defining discourse within the national
frame and in contradiction to the group of Icelandic “modernists” (“the people that
just want to make lots of money in a short time” and “think about it [Iceland] as a 127 DVD1 (00:55:21) 128 As a matter of fact, the issue of the Icelandic language or the artificial language Hopelandic in some of the Sigur Rós song is not at all commented in the film, regardless the fact that it constitutes beyond doubt a central element of Icelandic-ness. 129 Paul E. Durrenberger, Gilsi Palsson (Ed.) The Anthropology of Iceland. University of Iowa Press, Iowa 1989, p. xii
22
money-making scheme”).130 Moreover, even in this contemporary context Sigur Rós
seem to reproduce in this film stereotypical conceptions about the North and Iceland,
like the idea of “interconnectedness of the nation to the land” as well as the idea of a
“collective heritage running the Icelandic generations continuously” (chapter 1.1).
Nevertheless, their kind of Icelandic-ness consists of an open dialogue
between present and past, where the concept of tradition is not a factor that blocks the
development of a society, but rather allows people constants of self-definition. Thus
tradition, as presented from the Sigur Rós perspective, constitutes a living organism in
a state of constant change and development, from which people (in this case artists)
draw their identity features and transform it, by incorporating in it contemporary
significance.
130 DVD1 (00:55:41) and DVD1 (00:55:15) respectively
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Bibliography Dibben, Nicola (a). “Nature and Nation: National Identity and Environmentalism in Icelandic Popular Music Video and Music Documentary”, in: Ethnomusicology Forum 18:1, Routledge, pp. 131-151, published online: 28.5.2009 (17 June 2013) Dibben, Nicola (b). Björk. Indiana University Press. Bloomington, Indianapolis 2009 Durrenberger, Paul E., Gilsi Palsson (Ed.) The Anthropology of Iceland. University of Iowa Press, Iowa 1989 Hastrup, Kirsten. Island of Anthropology. Studies in past and present Iceland. Odense University Press, Odense 1990
Hobsbawm, Eric, Terence Ranger (ed.). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge 2000 Karlsson, Gunnar. A brief History of Iceland. (Trans. Anna Yates). Mal Og Menning, Iceland 2000 Miller, Eduard D. “The Nonsensical Truth of the Falsetto Voice: Listening to Sigur Rós”, in: Popular Musicology Online, Issue 2 ‘Identity and Performance’, published online: 2003 (23 Sept. 2013) Mitchell, Tony. “SIGUR RÓS’S HEIMA: An Icelandic Phychogeography“, in: Transforming Cultures eJournal, Vol. 4 No 1, April 2009, pp. 172-198 (23 Sept. 2013) O’Brien, Mary-Elisabeth. Nazi Cinema as Enchantment. The Politics of Entertainment in the Third Reich. Camden House, NY 2006 Schram, Kristinn. Borealism. Folkloristic Perspectives on Transnational Performances and the Exoticism of the North. PhD, The University of Edinburgh, 2011 Online Sources "Definition of Stereotype in English." Stereotype: Definition of Stereotype in Oxford Dictionary (British & World English). N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Aug. 2013, URL: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/stereotype?q=stereotype "Iceland - Ultimate Journeys - Discovery Channel Documentary." YouTube. YouTube, 25 Feb. 2013. Web. 18 Aug. 2013, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs7tz_qljMY "Sigur Rós - about." Sigur Rós - about. N.p., n.d. 2000-2013. Web. 18 Aug. 2013, URL: http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/band/
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"Sigur Ros." Myspace. N.p., n.d. 2013. Web.18 Aug. 2013, URL: https://myspace.com/sigurros "Sigur Ròs : Heima." Sigur Ròs : Heima. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013, URL: http://www.heima.co.uk/ "Sigur Rós - Discography » Heima." Sigur Rós - Discography » Heima. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013, URL: http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/band/disco/heima.php
"Sigur Rós - Lyrics." Sigur Rós - Lyrics. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2013. URL: http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/band/lyrics.php "Jazz on a Summer's Day." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013, URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052942/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 "Echoes: Pink Floyd." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013, URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069090/?ref_=sr_3 "Walkabout." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013, URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067959/ "Dean DeBlois." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013, URL: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0213450/?ref_=sr_2 "Nick Fenton." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013, URL: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1067898/ Audio-Visual Material Sigur Rós. Heima. DVD. Dir.: Dean DeBlois. Distr.: D&E Entertainment (2006, USA, theatrical), EMI Music (2007, Finland, DVD), EMI Records (2007, UK, DVD), 2007 [DVDs 1+2]