Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður

ABOUT

In autumn of 2011 I was invited to present my music at a festival in Reykjavík. The unique beauty of the Icelandic landscapes left a deep impression on me. In the middle of the Icelandic nowhere, I came to think of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, and felt a strong impulse to elaborate on this association with a new composition. Such an approach may seem a bit impressionistic, yet in a sense any impression can trigger creative activity, and at the same time lead to rather abstract artistic implementations.

Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður* (for violoncello and sound projection) is a search for higher and more complex modes while dealing with the subject of amorphousness. So are the chosen musical building blocks capable of abandoning their autochthonous, archaic being in order to unfold a new life of a higher, more refurbished structure? The discovered options are only partially useful to aid the respective inordinate (i.e. anarchic) components into developing a more complex structural existence. Therefore, ultimately, the described search is discontinued, being an unsuccessful endeavour: what is essential may only be transformed temporarily, yet a ‘genomic’ metamorphosis cannot be carried out.

The electro-acoustic part of Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður is based on audio recordings of Icelandic landscapes, among others including the waterfalls Skógafoss and Gulfoss, Vatnajökull Glacier, and Lake Jökulsárlón. Those untreated elementary sounds are omnipresent throughout the sound projection. The violoncello is understood as a natural phenomenon as well, and treated accordingly.

*) Name of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. Vatnajökull [‘vahtnaˌjoeˑkʏtl ] (engl. ‚water glacier‘) is the largest glacier in Iceland.

Belma Bešlić-Gál [2011]