2009 Herring Quest
Herring Quest was a one month residency at Herhusid Artist Residency in Siglufjordur, Iceland. Here is a blog about the project.
Harry Belafonte and the Herring Girls
Soundwalk 11′ 58″
During our residency in Siglufjordur, the herring capital of Iceland, we found a picture of Harry Belafonte amongst the possessions of a herring girl (the workers who packaged the herring catches). The photo seemed significant; this debonair islander, Jamaica in his case, nestled amongst the cheap perfume and fish knives. His career nosedived the same year the herring stopped coming. Were the two in some way linked? Was Harry Belafonte was somehow responsible for the disappearance of the herring; as his record sales grew so did the herring harvest, when his sales fell the herring adventure ended. If Harry Belafonte reappears in Siglufjordor, would the herring return? This immersive audio guide leads listeners around the museum and out into Siglufjordur, incorporating real and imagined soundscapes of the town, as well as the music of Harry Belafonte. This piece is now part of the Herring Era Museum’s collection.
Speaking the Mountains Soundpiece 30′
This recording was made during August and features eight residents of Siglufjordur of varying generations reciting the names of the landscape, as transcribed by from eight farms neighbouring Siglufjordur town. The original documenting of the names were an attempt to preserve an oral body of knowledge into a written one. The speakers intone the old names, transforming the landscape from text back to sound. The piece is intermittently accompanied by a wordless performance of a local folk song about the mountains.
In the early part of the C20th a fishermen in Siglufjorodur undertook a mission to collect all the local names for the landscape in the Siglufjordur region. After some years of walking and speaking to local farmers, all during his breaks from fishing, he collected around 1400 different names for mountains, valleys, lanes and flats. During the first decade of the C21st three Siglufjordur residents collated his findings onto a website, www.snokar.is, for contemporary walkers and folklorists alike to scrutinise.
The speakers are Örlygur Kristfinnsson, Hrafn Örlygsson, Hildur Örlygsdóttir, Rósa Húnadóttir, Hannes P. Baldvinsson and Halldóra Jónsdóttir.
Longwave: Searching for Sailor’s Hour (Soundpiece 6′)
Until the early 1980s, RUV broadcast a sailor’s programme every Thursday at 1.30 in the afternoon, playing messages from the sailor’s families and musical requests. On Thursday 20th of August 2009 we searched the airwaves for any residue transmissions. Perhaps we salvaged some evidence that would help us.