The ethereal and eerie, sonic landscapes of the Icelandic avant-garde rock band Sigur Rós transcend language—and only partly on account of lyrics that are sung in both their native tongue and an unintelligible, invented one that’s been called “Hopelandic.” Frontman Jón Þór “Jónsi” Birgisson morphs and bends his folkloric falsetto like an ambient drone, chartering an otherworldly sound that first garnered global acclaim in the early aughts. In the years following, the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist has collaborated with a myriad of artists, including Doug Aitken, Olafur Eliasson, and Merce Cunningham, across many mediums.

For his first-ever solo exhibition—on view through Jan. 9 at Tanya Bonakdar’s Los Angeles outpost—Jónsi explores various contours of sound with a trio of multichannel audio works that explore shape, feel, smell, and movement. The first, “Í Blóma (In Bloom),” projects sound from a cluster made of of P.A. speakers, chrome buttplugs, metal, and wood that has been formed into the shape of a foxglove, a flower that’s both toxic and medicinal, accompanied by foul notes of cadaverine—the putrid smell of rotting flesh. “Hvítblinda (Whiteout)” brings viewers into a blank, brightly lit gallery filled with the scent of ozone. It’s an uplifting space foiled by the last, “Svartalda (Dark Wave),” a nearly pitch-black room filled with notes of seaweed and ASMR sounds alternating between ocean waves, whispers, and breaths. Quixotic, uneasy, and complex as ever, this is a new side of Jónsi we welcome seeing—and hearing—more of.