On her new album, “Biophilia,” Icelandic singer, composer and producer Björk delves deep into her imagination, a place that with each passing song seems to shape her message even further.
An hour-long production, Björk’s eighth release is her most ambitious project yet. Björk experiments with variations of icy electronic tunes and acoustic samples melded with digital rhythms and vibrant harmonies that will flow through your ear buds.
“Cosmogony,” for example, features bass rolls, echoed choruses and several universal myths. “Back then our world was a cold black egg / until the god inside burst out / and from its shattered shell / he made the world we know,” Björk sings.
“Thunderbolt” resonates like an ancient chant from the far reaches of outer space. The refrain “craving miracles” depicts her yearning to mix sound with the hidden wonders of science.
Björk worked with producers over the course of several years to record “Biophilia” on custom-made instruments and software that sought to explore the relationship between nature and technology.
Included on the album are a pair of musical Tesla coils and a “gameleste,” a cross between a gamelan (a set of instruments such as xylophones, drums, gongs, flutes and more) and a celeste (an idiophone similar to a piano), which was programmed to play remotely by a tablet computer.
For this album, Björk has become much more innovative, creating not only music and videos but also an application for the iPad and other Apple products. Whether this marketing approach works will be completely up to her fans.
But by constantly pushing her listeners out to the edge, the experimentation at some point is so abstract, that we get lost in her concept. In “Mutual Core,” she sings about the “magnetic strife” of the tectonic plates in her chest. “Dark Matter” features heavy gibberish, and the song is difficult to get through.
Certain concepts that Björk began exploring in the mid-1990s aren’t sparkling on “Biophilia” either. The single “Crystalline,” for example, sounds like a rendition of 1997’s “Homogenic” with its drum and bass breakbeat. Interesting, yes, but not surprising.
That’s not to say that Björk has ceased to be a fascinating presence on the album. “Biophilia’s” focus on technological innovation to produce her sounds and themes of science is unique but it seems as if she tries too hard and falls short of remarkable.
If you’re even somewhat familiar with the singer over the last two decades, you know what you’ll be getting musically from her new full-length project, but the concept behind her work strays far from the ordinary.
If you think Lady Gaga is a pioneer, Björk’s style and musical approach will propel you to a whole new dimension.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
