Rejection of normality. Bjork thrives here. Whilst most musicians might fuck about on their seventh studio with a Theremin or perhaps a small brass section, Björk is harnessing gravity, the moon’s cycles, the dynamics of viral attacks, lightning and pimping up ancient analogue percussion instruments with MIDI to untether fresh sounds.
Her inherent love of nature and harmony has led Björk to create the most challenging, revolutionary album to date. “When I was a kid, my rock star was David Attenborough,” she explains, and far from him remaining just a childhood crush we find the veteran documentary maker introducing her latest work.
Naturist Edward O. Wilson first proposed that there’s an irrefutable link between humans and natural systems. And this adhesion to our natural world has been pounced on by Björk’s development of weird instruments: Pendulum harps, Tesla electricity coils with bespoke sequencers, a solar-powered music box, or her ‘gameleste’- a cross between an Indonesian gamelan and the celeste.
This latter hybrid sees old realm and new world collide as bronze meets iPad circuitry: “It is an old celeste of mine that has been gutted and the notes replaced with bronze ones,” the elfin Icelandic tells Clash. “It then has MIDI, which basically means that you can play a touchscreen and the gameleste will play what you did while you do it.” The results are found on ‘Virus’ a modern love song about a germ’s obsession with its chosen cell, eventually killing it. It’s a contemporary tragedy powered by the notion of fixation, as she sings: “Like a virus needs a body / Soft tissue needs blood / Someday, I’ll find you”.
Björk, as perhaps only she could, has also harnessed the cycles of the moon, which have long been linked with our bodily rhythms. She used the Lemur touch screen sequencer with her own programs written in Max to create unique rhythms based on prime numbers that shepherds her away from the pop meter of 4/4 and into the swaying, more naturalised arms of 17/8 and 5/8. Asked how it felt to write music in sync with the moon she wasn’t shy in her response: “Empowering!” she declares. “And also humbling. These are the things I want to set my clock to and harmonise with. As much as computers have made my life easier, more self-sufficient and freed up my working rhythm with enabling me to work at home, I always felt writing music with a mouse was a little limiting. Like threading a needle with an ocean. But now it feels more impulsive and natural. There is a reason for our ten fingers…”
But did all this development of natural forces help her or hinder the speed of writing? “Hhmm, that’s a good question,” she ponders. “It took ages to set it up. But once it was up it didn’t take that long. I sat down and tried to map out how I felt about music and what would be simplest and most functional – using structures from nature seemed the most effortless fit. It was an amazing luxury to be able to fit the algorithm of a thunder there or the structure of a crystal or the multiplying viruses and so on and then play with the music with your fingers! That’s a new one!”
Each song is serialised through an app with music and games, far from a standard delivery format. She just hopes that people take more notice of their environment: “I feel each musician has his own sound, his own chords and ‘Biophilia’ helped me define mine. And gave me tools to access them. We should listen to our environment more; we can’t do without it.”
Words by Matthew Bennett
Find out about more ‘Inimitable Instruments ‘ on ClashMusic.com HERE.