Björk: "My new album is coming out very soon!"

[yxi 4,999]

Spoiler

 

[tomsches 16,954]

22 minutes ago, symphonia said:

Here's a summary by Psycho of the Dazed story:

 

 

[tomsches 16,954]

This is what we know about the album:

1) started working on this immediately after finishing vulnicura. 
2) "feels lighter than air." 
3) using flutes and woodwinds as opposed to string arrangements. 
4) "compositions punctuated by the sound of birdsong and the natural world." 
5) "there are still moments of harshness." 
6) working with arca again on this album. 
7) rabit provides a 'crushing jackhammer' rhythm to one track. 
8 ) buoyant, weightlessness, 'unwavering up-ness.' 
9) it is natural for björk to do the opposite of whatever the last album was. vulnicura was dark and sad, so this album will be lighter and happier.
10) finding a 'new manifesto.' 
11) "an exploration of utopia." 
12) "against a backdrop of rising xenophobia and the looming threat of climate catastrophe, the album asks whether paradise is possible." 
13) "puts love at the centre of resistance." 
14) one of the songs is titled 'the gate.' 
15) rediscovering spiritual love. 
16) humanity in harmony with nature. 
17) björk is part of a group that anonhi founded called 'future feminism' and omg i love this.
18) some of the birdsong was recorded by björk. some comes from a 1980 album by david toop. 
19) bjork talks about arca like she has talked about previous lovers and this makes me woooonnndderrr. 
20) another song is titled 'allow.' - this song is straightforward and melodic but may not make the final cut? 
21) another track is called 'loss' and is one of the album's 'immediate highlights' 
22) i am noticing that these song titles are unusually short and simple compared to previous albums but maybe they will change before the album is released. 
23) brief segue where björk discusses her endless love of rupaul's drag race, lol. 
24) wait, what rupaul contestant impersonated bjork? where is this clip? i gotta see it.
25) she describes her new record as 'a dating album.' 
26) "it's like my tinder album."
27) another song is called 'features creatures' which feels much more like a bjork title. 
28) the album is about building a personal paradise, as much as it is about building one for the planet.
29) seems that one of the songs (features creatures) describes seeing a man who has a beard and accent like her lover.
30) she talks about playing the flute by the lake at her cabin, and i am interested to see if she will play an instrument onstage this time around. reminds me of glora from 11-year old bjork album which is a song i love, interesting that she is returning to those early instrumental roots. 

[FrozenKookie 2,638]

18 minutes ago, tomsches said:

This is what we know about the album:

1) started working on this immediately after finishing vulnicura. 
2) "feels lighter than air." 
3) using flutes and woodwinds as opposed to string arrangements. 
4) "compositions punctuated by the sound of birdsong and the natural world." 
5) "there are still moments of harshness." 
6) working with arca again on this album. 
7) rabit provides a 'crushing jackhammer' rhythm to one track. 
8 ) buoyant, weightlessness, 'unwavering up-ness.' 
9) it is natural for björk to do the opposite of whatever the last album was. vulnicura was dark and sad, so this album will be lighter and happier.
10) finding a 'new manifesto.' 
11) "an exploration of utopia." 
12) "against a backdrop of rising xenophobia and the looming threat of climate catastrophe, the album asks whether paradise is possible." 
13) "puts love at the centre of resistance." 
14) one of the songs is titled 'the gate.' 
15) rediscovering spiritual love. 
16) humanity in harmony with nature. 
17) björk is part of a group that anonhi founded called 'future feminism' and omg i love this.
18) some of the birdsong was recorded by björk. some comes from a 1980 album by david toop. 
19) bjork talks about arca like she has talked about previous lovers and this makes me woooonnndderrr. 
20) another song is titled 'allow.' - this song is straightforward and melodic but may not make the final cut? 
21) another track is called 'loss' and is one of the album's 'immediate highlights' 
22) i am noticing that these song titles are unusually short and simple compared to previous albums but maybe they will change before the album is released. 
23) brief segue where björk discusses her endless love of rupaul's drag race, lol. 
24) wait, what rupaul contestant impersonated bjork? where is this clip? i gotta see it.
25) she describes her new record as 'a dating album.' 
26) "it's like my tinder album."
27) another song is called 'features creatures' which feels much more like a bjork title. 
28) the album is about building a personal paradise, as much as it is about building one for the planet.
29) seems that one of the songs (features creatures) describes seeing a man who has a beard and accent like her lover.
30) she talks about playing the flute by the lake at her cabin, and i am interested to see if she will play an instrument onstage this time around. reminds me of glora from 11-year old bjork album which is a song i love, interesting that she is returning to those early instrumental roots. 

Do you have a link for these?

[tomsches 16,954]

8 hours ago, FrozenKookie said:

Do you have a link for these?

It's all in her dazed interview

[tomsches 16,954]

Here's a new interview translated from a German magazine:

barcelona in june. bjork has invited to the hotel alma, a five-star hotel, whose need for habitual use is to allow as little light as possible. the lamps are dimmed, the floor is black, walls and ceilings have been painted in anthracite. who strolls through the aisles inattentive, invariably gets bruises.

how good that bjork just sits. she has sat at the window of her suite, in front of her a laptop, on her nose a black-framed glasses. she wears a prominently uncomfortable looking ensemble of thick fabric, reminiscent of bronze-colored wrapping paper, which consists of an oversized shirt and a sweatpants on which the boots are sewn. the meeting is a prelude to their new album, which at the time is still so new that it has no title, actually the album is not even finished. an icelandic choir must still be recorded as well as one or other flute. outside of their surroundings, no one has heard the new songs. now two curious strangers have come from england and germany, the artist is correspondingly nervous. there is a complicated introduction, in which bjork excuses himself for the fact that what you are going to hear will not sound as it should be, what the new listeners will not notice, why they do not listening experience perhaps commented here and there. she laughs, she looks so enchanting and approachable as you have imagined. then, on her laptop, bjork raises the pro tools program, turns the knob up, and starts the show at the highest volume.

bjork is one of the kind of artist, the more skeptical one the better one gets away from her. it's a bit like their great role models joni mitchell and kate bush - there are moments in life where you can start with their music, and if you do not have that moment, a voice and music get on your nerves ,

my last bjork phase i had at post, and when homogenic appeared in 1997, it was definitely over. everything that came after it had a terrible effect on me, and i did not want to hear it. an album whose music is inspired by the art of the web (vespertine, 2001), one that consists only of human sounds (medulla, 2004) that explores the connection between nature and technology (biophilia, 2011) or their separation from matthew barney (vulnicura, 2015). in addition to all the disguises and videos and apps - from a distance it can seem like an impertinence, but it loses momentarily as soon as one gets closer to bjork's work. it is enough to simply listen to their records - they are also exceptionally great, if they are first introduced with a delay of many years. in fact, bjork has long been playing in another league. she is her own genre, a superstar who has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide, and does not sound a second afterwards, as sales figures are only a relevant category for him. also the new album comes out without any recognizable hit and should run at best on holidays on the radio. but bjork does not seem to care.
q: how is it that his new music, which no one else has heard, is played by two strangers?

a: in any case disturbing, haha. especially since the songs are not yet finished.

q: you did it anyway.

a: yes, my label has often asked me if i am not interested in giving the press an insight into my workings.

q: and?

a: i just stared at my people (rowed with their arms, making sounds of panic). so, further than now, i would not be sure if i had not already a lot to do not mix, there were instruments missing, and besides, i'm not satisfied with the speakers here. they make such a tsss sound.

q: while the album was running, you never looked over at us. did not you care how we react to the music?

a: maybe i just wanted to leave you enough space and not to exert pressure. such a prelude in the presence of the artist is, of course, a strange situation.

q: for both sides, i suppose.

a: absolutely. in addition, i know from myself that i have to listen to an album more and more times to befriend him. i've been wondering all the time whether you hear what i hear. very confusing.

q: what i took with me from the first impression is that this time there are wind, flutes, harp and voices.

a: yes, the idea behind it is to sit in the clouds and design a world. so there is a lot of wind and air around you. however, there are hardly any elements that are ground-connected. sufficient for what is, is about the courage to imagine what could be. how would one wish the world in which one wanted to live? on the other hand, i also amused myself in the texts about the idea of a utopias. how do you think it would be better? why does everything have to be new? however, in the time of trump utopia is also a necessity. we must develop an idea of how we want to live in the 21st century, and we can not hope for our governments. we must muster the courage to imagine something great.

q: on the other hand, already the twentieth century was characterized by utopias of every kind - in society and also in art, i am thinking about futurism, for example. one can say that nothing has come of it. unfortunately, people tend to want to force their romantic ideas through violence.

a: yes, sure. often, the ideas are just bizarre. in china, it is called utopia peach blosson spring, which goes back to a fable from the fifth century, which describes a kind of paradise. in japan there is something similar, and in iceland, actually in the whole nordic mythology, there is the idea of asgard, the place where the gods live after their death. by the way, i have read of a satellite called asgardia, which is about to be shot into space. you can upload your data to the hard disk of the satellite, thereby permitting citizenship, which means that you can keep your real citizenship.

q: what might be practical at the next border check.

a: haha, yes, exactly. at first it looked as if asgardia was a sympathetic utopia, but now it seems to be breaking up in the air because capitalists have captured the satellite to save taxes.

q: what are the utopias on the album?

a: actually, much of the dating is about.

q: oh, so?

a: yes, as soon as you meet someone you like, you are already in a utopia. you paint a relationship that has not actually begun. much is also funny, although i am not sure that apart from me someone else finds the things funny. data is exciting on the one hand, but on the other hand, it is always embarrassing.

q: unfortunately, i did not pay too much attention to the lyrics.

a: no problem. i had briefly thought about whether i should print lyrics, but i decided against it. at vulnicura i did that at the time, but there was also a narrative on the album. there was a chronological sequence of the songs: before the separation, during the separation, after the separation. the album was very analytical. all the things that go through your head when you separate.

q: do you mean those endless conversations that you have in your mind with yourself?

a: horrible. but this time it is quite different. it is about something abstract, it is about creating a new sound territory. in this album the words are secondary.

q: if you listen to the songs of other artists, what is more important to you: the words or the music?

a: the music, clearly, especially since many of my favorite songs are in a language that i do not even understand. a friend recently sent me a youtube link to a video of abida parveen. she is one of my favorites and comes from pakistan. yes, and there was subtitle on this video. i was just like that: what about it sings? on the other hand, i like poetry, and if song lyrics are very poetic, i appreciate that. however, most of the music that i listen to, anyway, comes without lyrics.

q: what do you hear?

a: in one day, i may hear rihanna, the next bit electronic with chain saws. i like pop, i like music that is direct and communicates, such as flamenco or fado. but sometimes i hear techno. this may seem odd to some people, but perhaps it is related to iceland. if you come from a city where hardly more than 100,000 people live, you are inevitably confronted with musicians who play everything between classical and pop. it does not make any difference. your sister plays the violin, and your brother is in a metal band, but the one is no less worth than the other.

q: so all of you hear everything, because otherwise, if one were to specialize, would be alone?

a: well, maybe not quite so extreme, but we would attend at least our respective concerts, because it is a small town. i look at the concert maybe because my cousin is on the stage or the sister of a girlfriend. if you know each other, there are a lot of reasons. otherwise, it does not happen so much.

q: so if there are many things in your music, then is that not only intent, but logical consequence?

a: yes, on the other hand, i wonder whether the way i grew up with music really differs so much from that of other people. my mother sent me to the music school at five, where i learned the recorder. at least half of my friends were similar. they have then learned to play the violin or the piano - that is the way it is in germany. this brings you early contact with classical music, and then you go home and listen to pop. if you look at the star wars movies, you are confronted with john williams' orchestral music, and on your way home in the taxi beyonce. we all have this diversity in our lives anyway, so there is no reason not to embrace this diversity.

q: do you think of listening to the listeners?

a: yes and no. because i've been making music for almost my whole life, it has become part of me to think of the audience, which happens quite automatically. i've been on the stage since i was twelve, 13 years old. and the first ten, no, even 15 years, the stage was the place where i developed my style as a singer. i was 27 when i released my solodebut debut, which is quite late.

q: but there were already albums with your bands tappi tikarrassm, kukl and the sugarcubes.

a: yes, but what i wanted to say is that i've learned and internalized what it means to stand on the stage and reach people with my performance - or, if it's bad, not reach it. i have given thousands of concerts before the beginning of my solo career, so this was an intensive training. and then you record your own album and think: now i can finally do what i want!

q: what you did then.

a: yeah, and then you go on tour with the album and realize: okay, the fifth song seems to work pretty well. such things have an influence, of course. on the other hand, i like surprises. and because i like them myself, i think my listeners like them as well.

q: do you surprise yourself?

a: yes! sometimes, when composing, things happen that were not planned, but still fit - then i leave them that way. on the other hand, i like the fact that i know that over the years i have mastered the craftsmanship better. the string arrangements on vulnicura are, for example, better than the strings on homogenic. i like that.

q: at vulnicura, there was a comprehensive visual concept with videos and apps. will this be so with the new, still nameless album also?

a: yes, but not from the beginning. first i want to let the music speak. then, next year, there will be a visual twin.

q: in vulnicura, you have often worn masks on the stage. was this necessary to get in the mood?

a: i'm not sure. more likely is a combination of different things. on the one hand there is the functionality of a mask, because it is often hard for me to be in a human crowd. and when you're on the stage, it's actually more unpleasant because you're constantly photographed from the audience, people you do not know who they are.

q: i suppose this annoys?

a: it is totally strange. ten years ago there was not that, but now: as soon as i go to a restaurant, ten people take the phone out of their pockets and take pictures. very strange. the mask is a kind of protection. besides, i like masks easy. when i started doing it many years ago, i did it myself, these were very simple, naive masks, but then my assistant, the wonderful mr. james merry, started to work for me who were much more sophisticated and also a lot more fun.

q: are the masks comfortable?

a: yes! in any case, they wear themselves more easily than a dress i wear on the stage.

q: there are two effects with a mask: first, you can not see more than the person you are, and secondly, to someone else. what is more important?

a: both. if the facial features are no longer indentified, one creates confusion. as a celebrity you become a kind of animal. you become a fox, and they all aim at you with their guns, and they will kill you. if you go down the street is hunting season.

q: are you doing this? you are being persecuted by paparazzi?

a: no, the problem is not the professionals, but the ordinary people who photograph.

q: understand!

a: the masks are a way to regain control of my image. i take this negative thing as an occasion to make something creative from it. apart from that, the masks made it easier for me to sing the sad vulnicura songs. through the songs i first understood why at widows the widows often carry veils. vulnicura had this veil. my voice was present and great, so the words were in the foreground. you hear me but you do not see my face because i was in mourning ... no idea, with many things i try to recognize a deeper meaning in it only afterwards.

q: have you ever thought of doing something completely different?

a: no, i do not think so. my problem is that i have neither the time nor the energy to do all the things i would like to do. for example, i would like to record 50 albums by the end of my life - and it makes me happy that if i'm lucky, i'll be able to make half the time.

q: what are you doing now? at the tenth? at the eleventh?

a: i do not know. in any case, i never make life. what i wanted to say was more likely to be that i was having a problem with my energy. so i keep saying to myself, okay, now i'm doing this, and when i'm done with it, i do. this is a kind of self-discipline, because i get so fast for different things and then lose concentration. so i have to calm down: stay focused! that's my problem.

q: so you're working all the time.

a: no, not really. i do not belong to the people who are sitting in the studio all night. i like to work during the day, and then only a few hours, when i concentrate on the music. but in my work there are so many aspects that i have to deal with. i'll be there when the songs are mixed, i'll be there when they're being mastered. if you invest so much energy into composing, arranging, writing, and writing, you have to be careful that the songs are not ruined at the end.

q: sure.

a: so i protect my songs, apart from that i am a family person. my house is always full of friends. i cook, we play songs, in between i maybe write lyrics - the music, the music in itself, is very interwoven with my everyday life. at the weekend i do not try to work, but maybe i am talking about music, just for fun, but then, too, into the music, so my work.

q: many artists have problems deciding when a job is done, because there are always things that could be changed.

a: no, i do not have any problems. when something is finished, it is finished.

q: sounds plausible.

a: i'm not a perfectionist. i also have no problems with errors. i have problems, but i do not have the problem. my problem is that i would like to deal with all things at the same time and then i think i should be in different places.

q: do you live in reykjavik?

a: yes.

q: are you interested in being a star? or are you one of many?

a: one of many.

q: your fame does not matter there?

a: fame as such do not consider icelandic to be absolutely admirable. what is pleasant.

q: you are left alone.

a: only tourists do not. but as long as i avoid tourist places, i'm okay.

q: but you do not live in iceland all year?

a: no, only half the year. i used to split the year between london and reykjavik, but now i'm going back and forth between new york and reykjavik. half of the year my daughter goes to school in brooklyn.

q: and this works?

a: yes, very well, and it has been nine years. in the fall we are in iceland, and in the spring we go to brooklyn.

q: what is your relationship with your old songs?

a: i would not sit down now and listen to my old records.

q: what if something is on the radio?

a: actually, i only listen to them in the run-up to a tour because i have different musicians on every tour. during the vulnicura tour, for example, i had many strings. and because i have not only played songs from the album, i'm looking for pieces that work well with strings, my old albums. at such moments i sometimes think: love, how crass my voice sounds there! but i like it when i discover my album overlaps, debut, post, homogenic, vespertine and all of them are different though. but there are connections: isobel, for example, is a continuation of bachelorette.

q: is this happening on purpose?

a: no, i have no idea how that comes. i am writing a melody, and then i realize: oh, this is the second chapter of whatever. because i've been doing this work for so long, these cross-connections are coming more and more. i consider this to be a good thing, which gives the matter a special river.

q: when vespertine appeared and the electronic duo matmos appeared in the credits, everyone automatically assumed that matmos was responsible for all the music. very to your displeasure. they gave pitchfork an interview in which you cleaned up the misunderstanding.

a: well, i'm looking for the battles i'm conscious of, and that was not a fight i wanted to go into. i thought that the work i was doing would be recognized in the long run. but there were a number of feminist artists who complained about sexism in the music industry because their performances were simply ignored, doubted, or attributed to men. they also had the feeling that i was cheating on them or did not support them in the matter because i made everything look as if it was not a problem. so i opened my mouth. "i know what, it's not easy at all!" it was good that i said that.

q: the problem still exists.

a: i can even understand why it is often confusing for the public to recognize who has done something with the albums. my upcoming album, for example, is a collaboration with arca - but this is an exception. at vespertine almost everything came from me. matmos were only in the studio with me in the last few weeks, have looked after the sound effects, but not the beats. but this album has different origins.

q: apart from the routine of sexism, the misunderstanding probably arises because electronic music can never make it clear who is doing what.

a: yes, with a conventional rock band the responsibilities are much more obvious: you have a guitarist, a bass player, a keyboardist, a drummer. joni mitchell and kate bush were then going to the studio with the songs they had written, where they could record them with the best musicians of their time. of course, mitchell and bush told these musicians what they were supposed to play, but in addition, these studiomics of course did what they did anyway. the credit for both of them got, without one had to point out. beu electronic music, on the other hand, does everything you do in the production category.

q: and production is invisible.

a: yes, there are no pictures of producers as they bend over the laptop or sit in the studio at the mixer. they are shown, if at all, only in some fine clothes. i mentioned that in an interview with pitchfork. immediately after that, someone has set up a website, because thousands of producers and sound engineers uploaded their pictures, because they showed at work. this touched me very much, but it was also necessary. i do not like to go to the studio, but i do not want to go into the studio. that actually kills everything and brings with it a strange energy with itself. but in that case, i did not do it for myself, because, as far as this specific problem is concerned, i am the least affected. i mean, i had to address it only in 2015, which is quite late, considering how many albums i had already released at the time.

q: absolutely.

a: i did it for the younger musicians, the little girls, who would later become musicians. i have a 14 year old daughter, and i believe in karma. if i take this battle now on me, it may have to fight less late. but i think that this is not to say that from now on i have to prove everything myself.

q: what you did not do this time.

a: exact.

q: the new album is a collaboration with arca. how does this have to be imagined? were you in the same place as you worked on the album? did you send files back and forth?

a: we spent a lot of time together. no idea it was pretty magical. we had already worked on vulnicura. i then wrote all the songs, arranged the strings, and then i told arca where, when, what beat and so on. at the end of the album, we had already become friends. actually, we only wanted to work on this one thing, but he came to iceland and back to iceland. then we hung up together, spent time together, were together on vacation. and then we wrote notget, a song for vulnicura and suddenly the synergy was there. you can not plan something like this. both of us know, especially me, because i've been in this business for so long, that one in life does not happen, especially with someone who is as talented as he is. this may happen to you one time in life, maybe two times, on three occasions you have been very lucky.

q: what was inspiration at work?

a: our conversations. we have talked a lot about feminism and matriarchy. beyond that the 21st century will only work if we arrange with nature that the world needs more female energy, that our egos often block us the way. we should not be territorial, but open and vulnerable, because that is a strength and not a weakness. if you get enough confidence, one plus one will be three. you can connect with someone without destroying each other. this collaboration with arca has always pleased me. he supported me on two albums, i now started to use his voice. we talked about singing, about melodies, voice training.

q: you were his trainee.

a: no, rather the aunt by his side, haha. it is a very symbiotic relationship in which we support each other.

q: so basically he is a very good friend.

a: yes, it is a friendship. for which i am very grateful

q: that's never happened to you in your career before.

a: no, never.

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

Warmthness?

 

[Bonkiii 385]

I'm the hugest Björk fan since childhood:) 

greatest artist in pop culture and of course I immediately pre-ordered it