| Since the start of the 21st century---and mostly in the past five years---Sigur Ros, Dan Deacon, So Percussion, and Nick Zammuto actively investigated their homes and found them to be inspiring, if sometimes difficult to confront or articulate. They wrote music resulting from their individual investigations. Certain albums, like So Percussion's Where (we) Live (2012) and Dan Deacon's America (2012), candidly explored place, while Nick Zammuto's Anchor (2014) obliquely referenced his family's homestead. In the case of Sigur Ros, Iceland undoubtedly has been an influence, although the band finds place-based descriptions of its music to be problematic. By identifying the musicians' senses of place---their psychological and emotional attachments to specific places---I contextualize the role that place plays in their lives and explore strategies of listening for locality within their music. Using these four groups as case studies, this dissertation explores the relationship of music and place. It also draws parallels between the groups' music and a recent ascendancy of place and public concern for the environment. I argue that the musicians in this study are producing work that coincides with an invigorated attention to location---examples of which include digitization of place, the migration of younger generations away from suburban living, and anxieties regarding anthropogenic climate change. Sigur Ros, Dan Deacon, So Percussion, and Nick Zammuto are thus part of both a cohort of place-conscious citizens and a bevy of contemporary musicians and composers who are exploring place. |
