[img:$uid]http://i.imgur.com/lfVhZ.jpg?6064[/img:$uid]

July 22, 2011

Link

Bjork doesn't like to think about her legacy. "I try not to. It can paralyze you. It unplugs you," she says, "with your gut."

It's fitting, then, that after selling 3.1 million U.S. copies of her first six solo albums , the Icelandic musician is ready to move beyond the CD, and even the MP3, and peer into the future.

"I've always been aware that vinyl or CDs are not the only way [to release music]," says Björk, 45. "Both are very short-lived formats if you look at how long music has been around. There are always going to be people who listen to music and always going to be people who want to play it for them. That will never change."

"Biophilia", due Sept. 27, isn't a new album as much as a new experience: The 10-track set will be released as an iPad app suite that invites the listener to tinker with its sonic palette through touch-screen technology.

Björk and a team of developers designed the apps to plunge the listener into the album's cosmology theme. The suite is stacked with interactive games, visuals and musical tools. "The spectrum is from 'music video' to 'instrument,' and generally all the apps are fitting somewhere in between that, sometimes in multiple places," says media artist Scott Snibbe, who served as one of the chief developers on the project.

For those who don't own Apple's tablet computer, "Biophilia" will exist as a gargantuan live show that features one-of-a-kind instruments, an educational program that teaches abstract musicology to kids, a 90-minute documentary that captures the making of the project and a relaunched website-the design mirrors the experience of the apps. "Biophilia" will also be released on CD through Nonesuch/One Little Indian, and first single "Crystalline" has be pushed to radio before the premiere of its breathtaking music video.

At the center of it all, of course, is Björk, whose cavernous, emotionally stirring follow-up to 2007's "Volta" is her most immediate album since 2001's "Vespertine." "This project is led first and foremost by Björk's music," says Michele Anthony, Björk's co-manager with Derek Birkett and former president of Sony Music. "The apps and the live show are just different mediums of expressing the heart of the project."

THE ART OF NOISE

Before "Biophilia" came to fruition, Björk was working on new music in a Puerto Rico beach house with engineer Damian Taylor, writing songs on pre-iPad touch-screens and forging new sounds with organ pipes that they had bought on eBay. After an extensive 18-month tour for "Volta," which included 10 U.S. shows that grossed a combined $3.5 million (according to Billboard Boxscore), Björk was ready to experiment. "We were making pendulums with elastics, rope, magnets and buckets . . . we were building something from the ground up," she says.

The album was originally conceived as a 3-D movie to be helmed by longtime collaborator Michel Gondry, but around the same time the director bowed out to finish "The Green Hornet" last year, Björk had become fascinated with the capabilities of the recently released iPad. Björk reached out to a collection of her favorite app developers through email and presented them with a unique financial opportunity: Without a major label attached to her next project, the apps would be self-funded and the developers would reap the majority of the revenue.

"Björk did it in a different way, which is that she said, 'What we can offer you guys is a creative partnership. Let's equally invest,'" Snibbe says. "She has the freedom to decide how to distribute it . . . and that's part of why this project could happen."

Sometimes Björk would email the developers (who also included iPad luminaries like Max Weisel and Theo Gray) hundreds of times per day after the project was started last June. Other times, the team would meet up at locations like an abandoned lighthouse in Iceland and work for eight hours straight. Her goal was to ensure the developers used the 10 individual apps for each album track to showcase the natural elements at the heart of the songs.

"Virus," a song about parasitic interaction in which Björk coos, "Like a virus needs a body . . . someday I'll find you," is supported by an app that lets users fight off green parasites from healthy purple cells that each emit unique ringing sounds. In the game for the song "Crystalline," which is about shifting natural structures, players can navigate through neon-colored tunnels by physically swinging the iPad around, and collect different crystals that change the musical structure of the song mix. "I didn't want the connection between the song and the app to be superficial," Björk says. "It had to go to the core."

Along with the interactive games, all of the apps will feature traditional and animated scores that behave like gorgeously designed karaoke scrolls, as well as an academic essay about each song written by musicologist Nikki Dibben. The 10 apps are housed in a "mother app," a menu designed as a 3-D universe that lets the user navigate among the apps. Apps can be purchased individually-the "Crystalline" app costs $1.99-or as a buy-all, with pricing to be determined.

When it came to approaching Apple to use its product as a host of the apps, Björk says the iPad was chosen simply because it could handle her ambitious creative plans, and that neither a monetary nor an exclusivity deal is in place between her team and Apple. If another tablet platform is created with the same capabilities as the iPad, Snibbe says, "Biophilia" could possibly be translated to that new platform.

According to Apple sales reports through first-quarter 2011, the company has sold 14.7 million iPads worldwide since the device's launch in April 2010. And while "Biophilia" will primarily exist on a platform that isn't yet a household product-the 10 apps will also be available in scaled-down versions on the iPhone and iPod touch-Snibbe believes the iPad represents the starting point of a new creative outlet for artists. "This is like the birth of cinema," he says. "I know artists want to embrace it, and if the record companies can find a way to make this work financially and contractually for the artists, I think it will really thrive."

Part II

RE-EDUCATION

Björk signed to Nonesuch Records, which handled the release of her 2009 live album "Voltaic," for distribution in North America earlier this year, in conjunction with longtime indie label One Little Indian. As the new album's release date approaches, the label's goal will be to promote the far-reaching resources of "Biophilia" without bewildering casual Björk fans.

"Her audience has come to expect the unconventional from her," Nonesuch senior VP of marketing Peter Clancy says. "While there are multiple facets to "Biophilia" as a project, the publicity effort, the label site info and Björk's own site have been geared to bringing clarity to the overall concept."

Björk's new website launched in May with a redesign that features an astral pattern similar to the appearance of the mother app.

After leaking online in June, "Crystalline" was put up for sale on iTunes and other digital outlets while being serviced to college, noncommercial and modern rock radio formats. It has sold 4,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"Cosmogony," the soaring second single, was released July 19, and the apps for that song and "Crystalline" were made available for purchase the same day. "Biophilia" became available for preorder in CD, vinyl and deluxe CD formats, while iPad owners have the option to prepurchase the entire "Biophilia" app suite.

The Gondry-directed video for "Crystalline," which expands upon some of the concepts of their dissolved 3-D movie, will be unveiled July 26, and multiple 12-inch releases with remixes are being planned prior to the album's release.

Meanwhile, Björk's personal focus will be on her live show, which will travel the world during the next two years.

Instead of visiting new cities every day, the "Biophilia" tour will entail multiple-week residencies in which a custom-built stage setup will be meticulously installed and Björk will perform her new material twice per week.

The project debuted at the Manchester (England) International Festival on June 30, where Björk performed with a 24-person choir, an iPad for orchestration and unique instruments like a gameleste (a celeste made with bronze gamelan bars) and pendulum harps (a collection of four harps that swing on pendulums) to a crowd of 1,800.

"The residency that we had in Manchester existed somewhere between a music concert, an art installation and a piece of theater," says MIF organizer Alex Poots, whose festival hosted Björk for three weeks.

Although other residencies haven't yet been finalized, Björk is expected to visit eight cities in the next two years, with Iceland up next in October and a U.S. residency tentatively planned for 2012.

On days between shows, Björk will use her residencies to host free educational programs in collaboration with local schools, in which children will learn about the spatial and structural qualities of music by writing songs on iPads that can be connected to custom instruments. For Björk, these programs epitomize the point of the "Biophilia" project's massive task: to use her music to stimulate others in a singular manner.

"The point where cutting-edge technology, music and nature can meet right now is extremely moist," Björk says. "I have wanted to start a music school though, ever since I was a child. I guess technology just caught up with me."

[Edited 8/22/11 4:25am]

...She tries too hard.

Sad part is, she really doesn't have to do all that stuff because she actually has a pretty good voice.

armpit said:

...She tries too hard.

Sad part is, she really doesn't have to do all that stuff because she actually has a pretty good voice.

You think she tries too hard?

I think she creates an experience!

RKJCNE said:

armpit said:

...She tries too hard.

Sad part is, she really doesn't have to do all that stuff because she actually has a pretty good voice.

You think she tries too hard?

I think she creates an experience!

You can do that and be genuine. The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

I've just always, always gotten the vibe that all her eccentricity is a put-on. For whatever reason, people tend to think they need to do that, come across as strange as possible, in order to be seen as a 'serious artist'. If I got the feeling that her oddness was genuine, I'd have no problem with it and a lot more respect for it - I'd be like, "That's just who she is."

I

I love her.

But honestly I think this iPad application (I refuse to say "app") release is bullshit. It's like she's turning your back on a huge portion of her fans just to play with a computer and release music in a new way. Sure it's innovative and if I had an iPad I'd snap it up. But as one of the millions who don't and won't own this technology I'm left without.

It's the same as the whole 20Ten fiasco all over again.

And this is coming from me who has bought bloody everything she's done AND forked out AU$140 for her Opera House concert.

connorhawke said:

I love her.

But honestly I think this iPad application (I refuse to say "app") release is bullshit. It's like she's turning your back on a huge portion of her fans just to play with a computer and release music in a new way. Sure it's innovative and if I had an iPad I'd snap it up. But as one of the millions who don't and won't own this technology I'm left without.

It's the same as the whole 20Ten fiasco all over again.

And this is coming from me who has bought bloody everything she's done AND forked out AU$140 for her Opera House concert.

Yeah, I'm started to get annoyed by this album's marketing approach, too. I don't give a rats arse about the apps.

I use a BlackBerry. There's no way for me to enjoy this project.

I don't get the feeling Bjork is "trying too hard." I can smell a phoney miles away, and I tell you this chick was born out there. Or, if she wasn't exactly born that way, she certainly has been consistently... er... special since long before she needed to put on airs in front of a global audience...

Self-titled childhood debut (1977)

And as for those of you who will worry about feeling feel left out: "For those who don't own Apple's tablet computer, "Biophilia" will exist as a gargantuan live show that features one-of-a-kind instruments, an educational program that teaches abstract musicology to kids, a 90-minute documentary that captures the making of the project and a relaunched website-the design mirrors the experience of the apps. "Biophilia" will also be released on CD through Nonesuch/One Little Indian."

Relax. There's something here for everyone.

[Edited 7/24/11 10:38am]

I just remember when all her enthusiasm was about the process of making music. Now it appears as if she needs a new hook (this album will be one with no instruments, this album will be the one with apps) to keep her interest.

Last album she went on and on about those instrument/computer screen thingies and the end result from a concert goers perspective was minimal. I bet 95% of the audience didn't notice the connection between the instrument and what was on the big screen nor did they care. I have a feeling the new concerts (and all this talk of apps) will be the same way---and in the end, the music quality better not be compromised by all the attention to the apps.

sosgemini said:

I just remember when all her enthusiasm was about the process of making music. Now it appears as if she needs a new hook (this album will be one with no instruments, this album will be the one with apps) to keep her interest.

Last album she went on and on about those instrument/computer screen thingies and the end result from a concert goers perspective was minimal. I bet 95% of the audience didn't notice the connection between the instrument and what was on the big screen nor did they care. I have a feeling the new concerts (and all this talk of apps) will be the same way---and in the end, the music quality better not be compromised by all the attention to the apps.

I think someone else designed the apps anyway, so she just focused on the songwriting.

sosgemini said:

I just remember when all her enthusiasm was about the process of making music. Now it appears as if she needs a new hook (this album will be one with no instruments, this album will be the one with apps) to keep her interest.

Last album she went on and on about those instrument/computer screen thingies and the end result from a concert goers perspective was minimal. I bet 95% of the audience didn't notice the connection between the instrument and what was on the big screen nor did they care. I have a feeling the new concerts (and all this talk of apps) will be the same way---and in the end, the music quality better not be compromised by all the attention to the apps.

Perhaps the concerts were , but what have you thought of the albums? I think to date the only album that hasn't captivated me was Volta -- and even it wasn't "bad." And its remixes were pretty darned good.

I certainly think many artists get distracted by -- or try to distract us with -- gimmick when the quality of their music starts to wane. But I've never gotten this impression with Bjork. I think in her case, what we see are earnest attempts to engage what'd be already quite solid music and its delivery in fresh ways for the sake of exploration, not novelty for novety's sake.

[Edited 7/24/11 11:20am]

God bless our weirdo musicians. Without crazies we have no art. Normal people make bad music, that's that.

Hootie and the Blowfish were nice guys, Bieber makes your mama want to pinch his cheeks, would allow him to play spin the bottle with your daughter, Blues Traveler are really good guys, who even like Prince, but they make shitty music. Prince is an asshole, but a god.

The irony of art is ego wins.

2freaky4church1 said:

The irony of art is ego wins.

Thats def signature worthy.

HohnerCatcher said:

sosgemini said:

I just remember when all her enthusiasm was about the process of making music. Now it appears as if she needs a new hook (this album will be one with no instruments, this album will be the one with apps) to keep her interest.

Last album she went on and on about those instrument/computer screen thingies and the end result from a concert goers perspective was minimal. I bet 95% of the audience didn't notice the connection between the instrument and what was on the big screen nor did they care. I have a feeling the new concerts (and all this talk of apps) will be the same way---and in the end, the music quality better not be compromised by all the attention to the apps.

I think someone else designed the apps anyway, so she just focused on the songwriting.

No, in interviews she talks about sending upwards of 100 emails a day corresponding with developers.

Lammastide said:

sosgemini said:

I just remember when all her enthusiasm was about the process of making music. Now it appears as if she needs a new hook (this album will be one with no instruments, this album will be the one with apps) to keep her interest.

Last album she went on and on about those instrument/computer screen thingies and the end result from a concert goers perspective was minimal. I bet 95% of the audience didn't notice the connection between the instrument and what was on the big screen nor did they care. I have a feeling the new concerts (and all this talk of apps) will be the same way---and in the end, the music quality better not be compromised by all the attention to the apps.

Perhaps the concerts were , but what have you thought of the albums? I think to date the only album that hasn't captivated me was Volta -- and even it wasn't "bad." And its remixes were pretty darned good.

I certainly think many artists get distracted by -- or try to distract us with -- gimmick when the quality of their music starts to wane. But I've never gotten this impression with Bjork. I think in her case, what we see are earnest attempts to engage what'd be already quite solid music and its delivery in fresh ways for the sake of exploration, not novelty for novety's sake.

And I don't think she's pulling gimmicks. I think she is sincere about her efforts but I also think she does all this at the detriment of the music. Sadly for me, I haven't been "wow'd" by her music since Vaspertine. With that being said, yeah, she isn't releasing clunkers---just good work. Blame me for expecting excellence.

And I wasn't bored at all at her last tour. (I've been to them all since Vaspertine.) Yet, the biggest element to her (based on interviews at the time) was the new instrument/touch screen thingie that IMHO was the least interesting part of the show.

Bjork was a damn near musical genius up until Medulla. I just got her iPad apps, they're pretentious garbage. Even the music is poor, which is surprising for Bjork. Just get the Crystalline single and forget this Biophilia crap.

yeah, the marketing of this whole 'era' is already getting on my tits.

got the "crystalline" single on itunes when it was released.

now i'm having a look around her new site and they're gearing up to

sell remixes and such of "crystalline" and the video is about to get a

premiere tomorrow.

why not have everything available at the same time? this whole kind

of "oh, here's something more" is just annoying. do we need seven

different releases for what could basically be put onto a single maxi

in the past?

the apps look boring and bewildering at the same time and i am just

bored by them already, eventho there are only 2 out now, lol.

thank heavens the album will also be released as a physical album,

just a 'normal' cd release. because for all the exploration and kind of

cool hybrid technology, i still prefer to have my music on an album,

with a clear concept.

her website reminds me of some of the stuff prince did in the past,

at least up until now it does. lots of talk about inventive new ways to

use new technology and your music together bla bla bla.

when i look at it, all i think it "oh, ok, is this all? the way you were

hyping this thing i was expecting this shit to melt my brain, but it's

kind of like dozens of things we've already seen and the only thing

i'm getting from this is annoyance. it spoilt the music for me".

so i'm not checking out anything anymore about this whole app mess

and i'll just get the album when it's released and just enjoy that for

what it is.

from what i've heard of it this far tho, it sounds like a lot of slow,

slow, sloooooooow music with once again, too much brass and too

few beats.

i hope and pray that i'm wrong but i fear that it won't get any more

exciting than "crystalline"

[Edited 7/25/11 6:09am]

You guys are just old.

I think her new direction (and every other past direction) is inventive and creative. I swear, you can never win with some people. You stay in your lane and people complain about you doin gthe same thing over again. Then you try someting new and they want you to saty in your lane.

They are artist, they create, they get bored. More power to Bjork. I'm going along for the ride. It's better than the "by the numbers" shit you hear on the radio.

larksanders said:

You guys are just old.

I think her new direction (and every other past direction) is inventive and creative. I swear, you can never win with some people. You stay in your lane and people complain about you doin gthe same thing over again. Then you try someting new and they want you to saty in your lane.

They are artist, they create, they get bored. More power to Bjork. I'm going along for the ride. It's better than the "by the numbers" shit you hear on the radio.

Know one is saying she (or any other artist) can't try new things. However, the quality of the work should not be sacraficed. I've enjoyed the Bjork train from Sugercubs till today and she has taken many many many stylistic curves throughout. The difference between then and the last couple albums have been consistency in quality.

Age has nothing to do with it (but nice childish dig there buddy) nor does "by the numbers" shit played on the radio.

BTW: It's okay for you to like her current music. My opinion does not invalidate yours.

Lammastide said:

I don't get the feeling Bjork is "trying too hard." I can smell a phoney miles away, and I tell you this chick was born out there. Or, if she wasn't exactly born that way, she certainly has been consistently... er... special since long before she needed to put on airs in front of a global audience...

Self-titled childhood debut (1977)

And as for those of you who will worry about feeling feel left out: "For those who don't own Apple's tablet computer, "Biophilia" will exist as a gargantuan live show that features one-of-a-kind instruments, an educational program that teaches abstract musicology to kids, a 90-minute documentary that captures the making of the project and a relaunched website-the design mirrors the experience of the apps. "Biophilia" will also be released on CD through Nonesuch/One Little Indian."

Relax. There's something here for everyone.

[Edited 7/24/11 10:38am]

The music from her '77 debut album is probably the most conventional stuff Björk has ever done though.

But I agree that since her teen years, her sound, both in solo projects and with Kukl and Sugarcubes, has been consistently unconventional.

I haven't connected as much with her stuff from the last 10 years as I have with her 90s stuff, but I admire her strive to be always cutting-edge in both music and technology, it would have been much easier for her to make sequels to Post or Homogenic but she chose to let her sound evolve.

And I should add that despite her eccentric image, I know that she is much more down-to-earth than for example the name-sake of this site - I live in her hometown and she can shop for groceries in the local supermarket or go to a small pub without causing a scene - I doubt you would ever see Prince shopping at Whole Foods, holding his own groceries.

For those who might not have seen her latest video for "Crystalline", here it is.

Identity said:

For those who might not have seen her latest video for "Crystalline", here it is.

Thanks for that. Love it.

HohnerCatcher said:

I use a BlackBerry. There's no way for me to enjoy this project.

Bjork has said herself that the album as a stand alone cd can be enjoyed as such. The apps are not essential to the experience of the album, just a bonus for those who can access them.

I don't like this thing that people say she is weird etc, she is not weird, she is just different and more challenging and interesting than a lot of the endless sludge we are usually subjected to in terms of music.

We should be thankful for artists such as Bjork, life would be a whole lot more dull without them.

[Edited 7/26/11 8:53am]

What a strange, exotic, fashionable picture. It's like a mix of janet jackson, saturday night fever and ron from the harry potter movies. I think it's quite cool. I don't consider myself a fan of Bjork's, there have been a couple songs here and there that I've enjoyed over the years, but kudos to her for taking advantage of other media through which to reach her fans and garner new ones.

Like the battered spouse I am, she hooks me back in with that video.

sosgemini said:

Like the battered spouse I am, she hooks me back in with that video.

I saw that coming.

I've actually grown to really love Crystalline (of which there are different versions/mixes, which made it hard to figure out what it really sounded like) and I'm looking forward to the album. Its taken me a couple years to get into each of the last three albums and I expect the same with this one. Thankfully she releases a lot of singles (CD and vinyl) over the years following each album so its easy to keep coming back and trying again. I don't mind music that challenges me and makes me work for the reward. Bjork rarely fails in that regard.