Sigurður Árni Jónsson: Illusion of Explanatory Depth

Sigurður Árni Jónsson is a composer and conductor based in Sweden. Jónsson studied composition at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík and the Academy of Music and Drama and Gothenburg and conducting at the Piteå School of Music. His works have been performed by ensembles including Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, NorrlandsOperan’s Symphony Orchestra, Esbjerg Ensemble, Norrbotten NEO and Caput and been featured at events including Dark Music Days in Reykjavík, Ung Nordisk Musik and New Directions Festival. Sigurður Árni Jónsson is the conductor of Ensemble Dasein, an independent new music ensemble based in Gothenburg, and as such has premiered numerous pieces by young eminent Nordic composers.

There’s no linear connection between the title and the work, but as a kind of reflection on our illusion of explanatory depth, intuitively I sense the work is derived from numbers rather than narrative. Numbers forced into a narrative so we can convince us of our understanding of the data. But the sounding result, the actual music, isn’t really a reflection, but perhaps rather a conclusion of my own thinking during the composition work, about narrative, internal stories we tell ourselves. A forced conclusion facilitating the beginning of a new story. Fused together the connections become so clear that they cannot be taken seriously; how the opening melody crumbles into more rigid but irregular segments and varied repetitions - an attempt at an explanation - but persists like a memory in chaos - a narrative craving meaning.