4.2 More-than-Human as Vibrant Matter
Regarded as abodes or houses of spirits, the rocks and mountains of the Sámi stories appear as sonic bodies imbued with creative capacities, emanating vibrational energies as they generate magical voices. From somewhere behind the rock wall, invisible more-than-human sound actors declare their presence, coming into being, and animating the material structure. Upon receiving vibrations sent by the human actor, the rock wall detaches these vibrations from their original source, depersonalizes them, and brings to life new vibrations, thereby enabling schizophonic spatial sound experiences. In terms of sonic matter, echoes represent energies inherent in an otherwise seemingly inert material structure. This capacity to become audible and generate sonic matter transforms the rocks into independent sound agents, whose essence appears to be inextricably linked to that of their inhabitants, as revealed by the traditional overlapping of names of places and spirits (see Section 2.3).
Material resistance, in the case of echoing rocks, translates as the creative force of this more-than-human agency. The rocks can be held responsible for the particularities of ritual chants and performances because they are capable of defining multiple factors that shape the appearance of incoming sound. These factors include the type of sound production, volume, timbre, intervals, and the performing strategies needed to produce a clear, audible reflection, including the moving trajectory of the human actor in relation to the rock. For example, loud shouts, pauses, and jumps from low to high are elements that facilitate the creation and perception of echoes (Shpinitskaya and Rainio 2021). Equally important is the rock’s role in determining other ritual behaviors, such as the noise-making taboo required for a successful acousmatic listening process. Furthermore, the potency of the more-than-human world is articulated in numerous statements by human agents who describe receiving their sonic forms, specific chants, or even entire chanting traditions from spiritual agency (see Section 2.3).
Given the potent manifestation of vibrant matter at sacred sites – even to the extent of determining, through reflected sound, how the source sound must be produced – the actual role of the human actor in this sonic multiverse appears to be a response to the site’s acoustic demands. In this context, the human actor becomes a receiver of the vital force communicated by the rock and must actively adapt in response to this sonic imperative. Sonic practices as adaptive behaviors begin with engaging in acousmatic and enchanted listening while performing chants or drumming in order to reveal and recognize the immanent sonic matter of the site. Focused on the enchanted sounds – distinguished from other sonic forms in the surrounding soundscape – this listening mode is selective and can be associated with an abstraction from the human self. The rock walls become imbued with the leading authorial voice, while human actors are expected to exercise auditory sensitivity and respond with flexibility to the conditions of a particular acoustic space.
This understanding of more-than-human agency as a creative force resonates with Indigenous perspectives that question the authorial primacy of human creative agency and advocate for the voice of the environment as a leading voice – one that shapes, for example, human yoiking gestures (Ramnarine 2009: 205–206; Aubinet 2020: 206–207; Valkonen 2023). Thus, the direct sound of performed chants, produced to call the power of the rocks into action, appears to be the result of a sonic attunement to the acoustic image of the place – a form of vibrational offering made to the site of power in order to resonate with its implicit energies.