Venus Volcanism at Leyninn
Venus Volcanism will perform a concert in the indoor hall at Leyninn.
Venus Volcanism (the artist name of Rena Rasouli) is a singer, musician, sound explorer, and music producer, born and raised on the island of Crete. For the past four years, she has been living in Siglufjörður.
She has studied contemporary singing and attended courses in traditional and polyphonic vocal techniques. Venus collaborates with various artists and bands within the Greek music scene and is one half of the Danish-Greek post-synth-punk duo V.V.I.A., together with In Atlas—former member of Lepidoptera and The Man from Managra and founder of the Arismari Trio.
In her projects, her music spans a wide range of genres, where ambient music, traditional and polyphonic elements blend with field recordings.
Her first solo release, the EP Rizitiko, was released on Weaponize Your Sound, a sub-label of the Scottish label Optimo. It has been presented and performed in Greece, Denmark, and Iceland.
Her second EP, Tissue, was released on Submersion Records and performed in memorable concerts at Unaðsdalskirkja (as part of the Snæfjallahátíð festival), at Extreme Chill Festival, at Ibrahim Khan Mosque inside the Fortezza of Rethymno, and in a broadcast for Onassis Foundation’s Stegi Radio TakeOver.
Venus has also participated in numerous compilations and collaborative projects, with releases on labels such as Women of V.V.I.A., Natty Wombat Records, Phormix, Meta Moto, Vinylograph, June Records, Echovolt, and Inner Ear.
The driving force behind the compositions on the album draws from Swiss cymatics researcher Hans Jenny:
"Nature creates through rhythm, periods, cycles, repetitions, sequences, and progression… This is how natural forms emerge. The very origin of the word ‘tissue’ (fabric) from the Latin texere (‘to weave’) is telling: cells arrange themselves in lines, patterns follow one another wherever we look. Cellular structures take the form of frames, networks, and grids—families of units that repeat and follow one another in regular sequences, forming edges and threads, whether seen with the naked eye or under a microscope.”
The Venus Volcanism project draws inspiration from this idea of natural “weaving” in two ways. On one hand, by applying the logic of natural forms and structures, “weaving” repeated sound patterns—ethereal vocal lines, synthesizer drones, and slow arpeggios—together with natural soundscapes (field recordings) captured during her travels through her new environment: the growing force of an active volcanic eruption at Fagradalsfjall, bubbling mud pools in the Seltún geothermal area, the ebb and flow of the sea in Dýrafjörður, and the mysterious echoes of frozen waters and migratory birds.
The interplay of these elements creates a sonic journey to the far north, as she experiences it.
The album Tissue is a sonic heterotopia—on the boundary between the tangible and the surreal—where vibrations and circular patterns of nature weave together an inner journey toward reconciliation with the artist’s own inner fabric.
Links:
https://venusvolcanism.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/venusvolcanism/
Visuals: Eleftheria Zanidaki