This Will Destroy You

I don’t remember how or where I first heard anything from the brilliant, Icelandic troubadours called Sigur Ros but I know that it was in 2008, when I was living in exile and looking for peace, power and meaning – in a place that some of both, but only under the right circumstances. I won’t go into their full history and discography but upon first hearing, Sigur Ros sounded so alien, so ethereal. Their sound made me feel glad to be alive, so that I might hear it when their weren’t too many inspirations to go around. It was non-denominational prayer. At times, when the right chords or sounds were struck, I wept. It was then that I heard of them being categorized as ‘Post Rock’. I wasn’t so much concerned about pigeon-holing any music as I was with patiently listening to it. It may as well been instrumental since their lyrics were almost exclusively sung in the Icelandic language, a North Germanic or West Scandinavian or derived from Old Norse tongue. This is too say that it was incomprehensible to non-Icelandic people and played as extra instrumentation. To try and translate the lyrics into English can be frustrating, if not disappointing – much like listening to foreign film overdubs of film scripts. Let it be what it is.

Other bands were born of the same ‘category’. They developed the language of music…..mostly without words.

“Music has power. It can motivate and move people to tears, acts of kindness or violence. It can be the soundtrack of your life.” – Howard

In 1992, Dr. Masaru Emoto began a series of experiments with water crystals. Water that was exposed to positive words such as “hope” and “love” formed beautiful, whole water crystals, he said, while words like “ugly” formed discolored, unshapely masses that don’t resemble crystals.

He also played music to see the impact it would have on water. He played different types of music ranging from Vivaldi to “Imagine” by John Lennon to heavy metal. While classical music and “Imagine” produced whole water crystals, heavy metal created a mass of vibrations without any apparent order.

Emoto’s methodology has met with some criticism, and his experiment has been criticized for being difficult to replicate.

But if his findings are true, it would be interesting to note that water makes up about 60 percent of the human body depending on age and gender.