Friday, September 16, 2011

Björk Guðmundsdóttir

Wherever one turns, it seems, one runs into Björk. Alex Ross was talking about her new project and the Wall Street Journal, of all people, posted her song "Crystalline" in their article about music played at the New York Fashion Week. Plainly Björk is the fashionably hip music. So I really want to see if I can see what is going on there, out of sheer curiosity. Here is "Crystalline":




And here are the lyrics:



Underneath our feet
Crystals grow like plants
Listen how they grow
I'm blinded by the lights
Listen how they grow
In the core of the Earth
Listen how they glow

Crystalline
Internal nebula
Crystalline
Rocks growing slow but
Crystalline
I conquer claustrophobia
Crystalline
And demand the lights

We mimic the openness
Of the ones we love
Daft till our generosity
Equalizes the flow
With our hearts
We kiss our quartz
To reach love

Crystalline
Internal nebula
Crystalline
Rocks growing slow but
Crystalline
I conquer claustrophobia
Crystalline
And demand the lights

Octagon, polygon
Pipes up an organ
Sonic branches
Murmuring drone
Crystalizing galaxies
Spread out like my fingers

Crystalline
Internal nebula
Crystalline
Rocks growing slow but
Crystalline
I conquer claustrophobia
Crystalline
And demand the lights

It's the sparkle you become
When you conquer anxiety
Sparkle you become
Conquer anxiety
Sparkle you become
When you conquer anxiety
It's the sparkle you become
When you conquer anxiety

In the first line it sounds as if she actually says "feets" not feet, but ok. The lines "We mimic the openness of the ones we love" and "It's the sparkle you become when you conquer anxiety" are rather effective. But what about the music? The accompaniment sounds rather like a synthesized gamelan, perhaps it is the new instrument she invented called a "gameleste" combining features from the gamelan with a celeste. Towards the end it sounds as if a drummer and a drum machine get into a battle to the death. The vocal melody  certainly has its own character, rather like an over-declaimed, repetitive children's song. Full points for originality--this really doesn't sound like anything else. But the, to me, dull and repetitive nature of it doesn't make me want to explore any further. What do my readers think about Björk? 
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4 comments:

  1. RGSeptember 18, 2011 at 10:53 AM

    This reader believes that to describe and evaluate these sounds, instrumental and vocal (with their accompanying images) only superlatives could justly be employed. I am inclined to follow your lead in choosing which adjectives they would intensify.

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  2. Bryan TownsendSeptember 18, 2011 at 2:30 PM

    With someone like Bjork, an apparently well-liked popular musician from a generation younger than my own, I make a special effort to be objective since it is always possible that I don't quite "get" it. Whatever it is. But I find figuring out your comment to be almost as challenging as Bjork.

    So let me say that, as pop music goes, and I think this is pop music after all, Bjork is pretty interesting. Some interesting and original sonorities, a voice that is certainly capable and unusual and lyrics that are not bad as well. This may sound a bit left-handed, but really, by the standards of current pop music, this is pretty much a home run. I don't find her music terribly compelling at the end of the day. But I will listen to her again in the future.

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 1, 2012 at 11:17 PM

    Absolutely love Bjork! Listen to a few live performances, she's an amazing performer with incredible pitch. She does incredible things with the sound of her voice. Accept that her style's personal, and I think a lot of other classical music listeners than myself will find plenty to enjoy.

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  4. Bryan TownsendFebruary 3, 2012 at 6:48 AM

    I notice that the clip I had up stopped working, so I put up a new one. I'm glad you love Bjork. I still can't take her all that seriously. Her voice has such an odd, childish quality.

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