Nýey
4.1 sound installation, 17'54'' (loop) © 2017
Mix: François Bonnet @ 116 Bunker
11-channel sound installation © 2016
Mix: François Bonnet @ 116 Bunker
CD, 31'07'' © July 2015
Label: Unfathomless
Mix: François Bonnet @ 116 Bunker
Radio piece, 35'30'' © 2014
Production: Deutschlandradio Kultur, Du côté des ondes, GMVL/Phonurgia Nova, Surtsey Research Society
Broadcast date: April 18th, 2014
Mix: François Bonnet @ 116 Bunker
4.1 sound installation, 20' (loop) © 2013
Mix: Philippe Charriot
All sounds are drifted from recordings made on and around the islands of Bjarnarey, Elliðaey, and Heimaey by the authors and on the island of Surtsey by Borgþór Magnússon in February and July 2013. The piece contains samples from the original music of the movie "Surtur fer sunnan" (Ósvaldur Knudsen, Iceland 1964), composed by Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson and words by Sturla Friðriksson, Borgþór Magnússon, Erling Ólafsson and Bjarni D. Sigurðsson from the Surtsey Research Society.
In 1963, off the coast of Iceland, an island has emerged after an underwater volcanic eruption, a rare event that occurs on average twice a century. It was given the name Surtsey, after Surtr, the fire giant of Norse mythology. The surface of this new land grew after further eruptions until June 1967 when it had reached 2.65 square kilometers in size and poked 175 meters out of the sea. Surtsey has been an object of research like no other territory has been before, since it offers the unique possibility to study in-scale the creation of an ecosystem. Closed to the public, a select few scientists have access to the island once per year for four days. To this day more than half of the initial territory of Surtsey has disappeared. The violent winter waves degrade its coasts, and winds erode its surface. Scientists estimate that by 2120, two-thirds of the surface will be gone and erosion will have laid bare its heart of palagonite, a rock that might withstand a few thousand years.
As the youngest member of the Westman Archipelago, Surtsey serves science as a window into the past of the older islands. Reciprocally, these older islands are studied as windows into what Surtsey might be like in the future. Inspired by this approach – the island, as sort of "time capsule" – we investigated Surtsey′s assumed past, present and possible future with sounds drifted from recordings made on and around the islands of Bjarnarey, Elliðaey, Heimaey and Surtsey. The resulting sound piece evolves around the motifs of creation, colonisation, and metamorphosis of a territory.
The radio piece was awarded the first prize in the category Radioarte by the 10. Bienal Internacional de Radio (2014), granted with Du Côté des Ondes from SCAM (2013) and with a residency at GMVL, Lyon by Phonurgia Nova (2012). Nýey was nominated for the Prix Phonurgia Nova (2015) and the Prix Europa (2014) and got an honorable mention from Palma Ars Acustica (2015).
