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Singer, composer and musician Björk Guðmundsdóttir (1965, Reykjavik) grew up in a hippie community where her mother, a feminist activist, had settled. She enrolled at Reykjavik's Barnamúsíkskóli at the age of five, where she learned flute, piano, music theory and music history. She sang in various choirs and took an interest in jazz, opening up to the contemporary music of Messiaen, Cage and Stockhausen, for whom she retains a deep admiration, while being lulled by the folk musical heritage passed down by her two Icelandic grandmothers.
From 1981 onwards, Björk sang in various punk bands, including KUKL ("black magic"), founded in 1983, then in 1986 in a new pop/new wave band, The Sugarcubes, whose reputation grew in the UK.
After the Sugarcubes split up in 1992, she moved to England and in 1993 recorded her first album, Debut, with the help of Nellee Hooper, in an electronic pop style nourished by the influences of Kraftwerk and Brian Eno and tinged with house music, techno, world music and jazz. The album was a hit.
She went on to forge a string of fruitful collaborations with Graham Massey, Talvin Singh, Tricky, Zeena Parkins, Antony and others. Michel Gondry directs eight music videos for her. The albums Post (1995) and Homogenic (1997) perfected her baroque style and honed her exceptional voice, a subtle blend of fragility, spontaneity, technicality and virtuosity.
Conductor Kent Nagano invited her to sing Schönberg's Pierrot lunaire at the Verbier Festival (Switzerland) in 1996. In 1998, when she returned to live in Iceland, her aesthetic took a new, more intimate and experimental direction. She played the lead role of Selma in Lars von Trier's film Dancer in the Dark , for which she also wrote the soundtrack (2000). The album Vespertine (2001) was conceived with the Matmos duo, Matthew Herbert and arranger Vince Mendoza, who helped her realize her increasingly refined musical ambitions.
In 2002, the singer married visual artist Matthew Barney and moved to New York.
She then planned to compose a new album based entirely on the voice: " I wanted to get away from the instruments and electronics that made up the sound universe of Vespertine, my previous album. I want to explore what can be done with all the emotional registers of the human voice - solo voices, choir, worked voices, pop voices, folk voices, weird voices... And not just in melodies, but everything else, all the noises a human gullet can produce."(AlexRoss, Listen To This, Music in all its states, p 220)
Most of the fourteen tracks on Medúlla were composed in 2003 during a trip to La Gomera in the Canary Islands. Recording continued until July 2004, starting in Reykjavik with producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, who has worked with Björk since 1998, and then moving on to El Salvador, London and New York. The artist has attracted many singers to collaborate on her project: The Icelandic Choir and The London Choir; singers Gregory Purnhagen (classical baritone), Mike Patton (ex-Faith No More), Tanya Tagaq (Inuit vocals, already featured on Vespertine), Robert Wyatt (ex-Soft Machine); the three beatboxers1 Dokaka, Shlomo and Rahzel; joined by musicians Mark Bell, Leila Arab, Olivier Alary, Peter van Hooke and Nico Muhly. The aesthetic universe of New York artist Meredith Monk has greatly influenced the color of the album.
Medúlla is the scientific name for marrow. Björk originally wanted to title the album Ink to refer to " that black blood that has flowed in each of us for five thousand years; an ancient, passionate, dark spirit; a spirit that survives ". (The Independent, August 13, 2014, James McNair "Björk: Passion in a cold climate")
This album is mystical, spiritual and philosophical, but also political, taking a stand against racism and the violence that followed the attacks of September 11, 2001. It is also marked by the birth of his daughter Isadóra, in 2002.
The voice is omnipresent, from its most carnal primal expression to the refinement of computer processing. Only a few instruments appear here and there (piano, gong, synthesizer).
" Pleasure Is All Mine " (1) features Björk's characteristic Tagaq voice, with its Inuit gasps, breaths and guttural tones, from the very first vocals, while Mike Patton provides deep bass, complemented by Rahzel's rhythm. The Icelandic Choir's outfits provide a gentle backdrop for the singer's voice, which proclaims the benefits of generosity.
Recorded as close as possible to Björk's vocal organ, her a cappella solo " Show Me Forgiveness " (2) suggests the intimacy and depth of a prayer, contrasting with the masses and rhythmic violence of " Where Is The Line " (3), which is similar in size to the first track. Rahzel's voice is sampled, chopped up and rhythmicized, but never transformed, and Patton's powerful bass dubs Björk's refrains, while the backing vocals infuse the whole track with eerie harmonies.
" Vökuró " (4, Vigil) is a lullaby by Jórunn Viðar to a poem by Jakobína Sugardóttir, sung with subtle choral accompaniment. The interlude " Öll Birtan " (5, Toute la brillance ) features superimposed loops of onomatopoeia, opening with " Who Is It " (6), a collaboration with Matmos, and letting Rahzel's powerful beatboxing shine through in a track with a thousand rustles and a chiseled chorus, " a song between pop and the choral meditations of Arvo Pärt ". (Alex Ross, op.cit., p 221)
" Submarine " (7) features Robert Wyatt's voice, vocals, sound effects and breaths, blending in spellbinding harmonies with Björk's call to action. The sizzling background of the meditative " Desired Constellation " (8) is programmed by Olivier Alary from a sample of the singer's voice. This minimalist accompaniment lends strength to Björk's melody, which gradually builds in intensity. In " Oceania " (9), The London Choir performs dynamic upside-down ascending and descending glissandi, supported by Shlomo's energetic rhythm and Robert Wyatt's vocal samples. Björk sang this track at the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games on August 13, 2004, shortly before the album's release.
" Sonnets / Unrealities XI " (10) is based on a poem by E. E. Cummings, while " Ancestors " (11) is a fascinating vocal joust between Björk and Tagaq, supported by a discreet piano. The end of " Mouth's Cradle " (12) brings Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush face to face with their responsibilities. This track is based on snatches of sampled vocals and a rich choral texture: " What I want is a pagan side and also something Slavic ". (Alex Ross, op.cit., p 222)
The transitional " Miðvikudags " (13, Wednesday) is an echo of " Öll Birtan ", paving the way for " Triumph Of A Heart " (14), a pop song in praise of the human body that reveals Dokaka's vocal talent in a frenzied rhythm backed by Rahzel.
Mark "Spike" Stent mixed and produced the album, released in the UK on August 30, 2004. The extent of the means and the creative comfort of an artist with star status can leave one dreaming. The result is a collective work of art, reminiscent of the artist's studio or the Beatles, from the conception of the songs to the refined video clips (Spike Jonze, Gabriela Fridriksdóttir...). The multiple skills brought together are orchestrated by Björk's talent in the service of her artistic vision. She embraces the possibilities of virtual reality and interactivity ("Björk Digital" exhibition, 2016).
His originality and inner world continue to express themselves on all subsequent albums, increasingly transcending the categories of popular, scholarly, experimental or folk music.
Guillaume Kosmicki
From "Musique savantes, De John Zorn à la fin du monde et après..." 1990-2015 published by Le mot et le reste
1. Human beatbox , or simply beatbox , is a vocal technique that emerged with hip-hop culture in the 1970s, in which the singer imitates the sounds of a drum kit or drum machine with his or her voice, as well as all kinds of other instruments.
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