Being markedly un-Scandanavian, I’ve always assumed that the Icelandic-sounding lyrics of the Icelandic band Sigur Rós were… well… Icelandic. Apparently, however, a good portion of the songs are sung either exclusively or partially in a language known as Vonlenska.
Vonlenska (named for the first song in which it appeared) is actually an idiosyncratic “language” made up by lead singer Jón Þór Birgisson. I put quotes around “language”, because a true language contains a consistent pattern of grammar and syntax. Vonlenska is more akin to glossolalia (speaking in tongues) than it is to idioglossia (a language only used by a single person or a tiny group).
If you have Flash enabled, you’ll be able to listen to “Von” below this sentence.
In another Example of an Icelander playing fast and loose with language, Björk sings her song “Öll Birtan” entirely in a plausible-sounding gibberish.
Meredith Monk performs all of her songs in pure musical glossolalia. Here’s “Gotham Lullaby” from her album Dolmen Music.
If I kept going with this list of examples, the pattern of linguistic devolution would lead us to scat singing (a la Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald). And perhaps at the very bottom would be whatever it is that Jonathan Davis of Korn is doing in the song “Twist”. Shall we call it bark-babble?
Yes. Let’s.
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You may also want to look into Cocteau Twins and their use of the Angelic tongue.