Before we were allowed into Ára, Sigur Rós's new immersive installation at the University of Oxford's recently opened Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, the audience was given a brief introduction. Around 35 of us had gathered outside the Black Box Performance Lab. This was not a live performance. There was no stage to watch. Instead, we were about to experience an immersive musical soundscape.
After removing our shoes, we entered the dimly lit room, where bean bags were scattered across the floor. It immediately felt more like stepping into a sanctuary than a performance space. The installation would last around 75 minutes, and the invitation was simple. We were to lie back, listen and allow ourselves to be absorbed.
For anyone unfamiliar with them, Sigur Rós are the Icelandic post-rock trio of Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, Georg Hólm and Kjartan Sveinsson. Their music has always seemed to exist somewhere between the earthly and the otherworldly, with Jónsi's unmistakable falsetto sung in Icelandic and sometimes the band's invented language, Hopelandic.
Ára draws on recordings from the band's performances with the London Contemporary Orchestra and choir at the Royal Albert Hall last year. Rather than simply playing those recordings back, however, they have been reimagined as a fully immersive experience. The piece was delivered through d&b Soundscape's 360-degree spatial audio system, with sound design by David Sheppard, who, along with John Best, is a part of Loss>
We settled in to the repetitive sound of wind and waves. Some strings began as the lights faded and the room disappeared. Without anything to look at, our attention was given entirely to the music. When light did eventually appear, it was used sparingly. Tiny stars shimmered and a moon-like circle could be seen glowing above us. Lighting designer Matt Daw created a subtle, yet effective, visual accompaniment to the sounds.
The sound itself was extraordinary. Jónsi's falsetto, strings, brass. The voices of a choir. Recordings of Icelandic nature could also be heard throughout. Running rivers, winds, dripping water, seabirds, the distant hum of insects.
Another layer came with the use of scent. Ambient fragrances created by Jónsi's perfume brand Fischersund subtly accompanied different sections of the piece. The scents deepened the sense of immersion without ever becoming distracting.
The music itself was phenomenal. Sigur Rós have long mastered the art of slow-building emotional release, and Ára allowed those qualities to unfold naturally. The repeating motifs started to feel almost like a mantra, easing us into a calm, focused state before slowly swelling into a powerful orchestral crescendo. Just as the emotional intensity reached its peak, everything gently receded once more until only the quiet sound of waves remained, slowly carrying us all back to silence.
That sense of transformation was no accident. As the opening commission for the Schwarzman Centre's Black Box, Ára sits alongside an Oxford research project exploring the relationship between sound, wellbeing and transformative states. Researchers Finn Moore Gerety, who studies mantra and sound in yoga and meditation, and Morten Kringelbach of the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing are working with the creative team to investigate how immersive musical experiences affect the brain and whether they can have lasting effects on wellbeing. Knowing this adds another fascinating dimension to an experience that already feels deeply meditative.
When the lights slowly returned, the illusion dissolved. For the first time in over an hour, we could see the other people who had shared the journey alongside us. There was a brief moment before anyone spoke, as though nobody quite wanted to break the spell.
Ára reminds us how powerful listening can be when everything else falls away. It is a profoundly moving and beautifully realised work that demonstrates not only the emotional force of Sigur Rós's music, but also the possibilities of immersive sound.