Dissonant Landscapes

Listening to the dissonances of nature and nationhood in modern Iceland
During the past three decades, Iceland has attained a strong presence in the world through its musical
culture, with images of the nation being packaged and shipped out in melodies, harmonies, and
rhythms. What ‘Iceland’ means for people, both at home and abroad, is conditioned by music and its
ability to animate notions of nature and nationality. In six chapters that range from discussions of
indie rock ballads to ‘Nordic noir’ television music, Dissonant Landscapes: Music, Nature, and the
Performance of Iceland describes the capacity of musical expression to transform ideas about nature
and nationality on the northern edges of Europe.
“Dissonant Landscapes takes discussions of nature and the musical imagination to a new level of
sophistication. With Iceland as the crucible of his investigations, Størvold shows how environmental
awareness has infiltrated musical practices that evade easy categorization, but have almost unlimited
potential to motivate listeners towards action.”
–John Richardson, author of An Eye for Music: Popular Music and the Audiovisual Surreal
TORE STØRVOLD (Trondheim, Norway) is associate professor of music at the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology.