Comparison & Contrast

Lately, I've been really inspired by the music of Icelandic artist Jonsi. His music incorporates stringed instruments, flutes, drums, pianos and his incredibly broad vocal range. Jonsi is iconic for his soothing falsetto range belting out both English and Icelandic lyrics. What is especially impressive are the music videos that correspond to some of his newest works entitled "Go Do" & "Animal Arithmetic". Knowing about other Icelandic artists has lead me to question if there is a particular style or theme that Icelandic music videos share, and if so, what makes it so.

Image credit: http://skyactivity.com/2009/12/07/jonsi-solo-album-details/.

The tightly cropped scenes and brightly distorted images are reminiscent of another Icelandic music group, Hjaltalín. This group also incorporates interesting instruments into their folk-acoustic style music like the bassoon, cello and others. Interesting similarities are also found in both groups choices for setting—usually somewhere in nature/ outdoors.

The artists who created these films took extreme care in the craft, paying special attention to the juxtaposition of image and sound at any given point in the song. In the case of the first film "Go Do", there is a story both told in the lyrics and expressed through the visual aid of the film. With feathers and different types of bondage, the film expressed the need to escape or break from ones chains, in this film as both a metaphor and a reality.

It's important to remember that people in Iceland are raised differently than people in the US, and social norms are different. Aesthetics start being a part of the education in elementary school with courses in traditional Icelandic knitting and embroidery and so on. With Iceland being so small, Icelanders feel an intense connection to their land, and in turn, use it and worship it.