by Carolynne Wilcox
Whilst frittering time away on meaningless interweb activity yesterday, I came across a quiz on Facebook called "Who is your spirit musician?". Well, of course I had to take it. I had assumed it was going to be musicians of a more mainstream/classic appeal, people like maybe Taylor Swift or Michael Jackson, or lately my newly-beloved Jimi Hendrix and the like, so I was very amused to see which of these folks the quiz would end up choosing for me after I gave all my answers. And I was SOOOO tickled pink to get BJÖRK!
I must admit: I came into my admiration for her kinda late. I'd known who she was, and had heard whichever songs made their way into public consciousness from both her body of solo work as well as from The Sugarcubes, and of course dismissed her weird red-carpet outfits. But she didn't seriously hit my radar as an artist until I saw the movie Dancer in the Dark, back in fall of 2000.
Not only did I enjoy her performance as the main character, Selma, but the absolute BEST THING about the movie was the music, which she'd created specifically for the film. I was fascinated by incredible things she did with non-traditional "instruments", and the music served as a completely delightful soundscape used in an unabashedly Brechtian manner to give audience and Selma alike some reprieve from the decidedly dark and depressing storyline. I immediately ran out to purchase the soundtrack, Selmasongs, and after giving it a few listens, pretty much went out and bought everything of hers I could get my hands on, and was, to say the least, NOT disappointed. Her music became the preferred theme songs of much of my adult life.
Björk, you see, is not merely a vocalist or musician. Though she is a force to be reckoned with as both, she is, more than anything, a consummate multidisciplinary artist who plays with sound, video & lyric in a masterful, unapologetic and creative way. There is simply NO ONE ELSE OUT THERE MAKING ART like her.
I threw her name in our Metronome Society *hat* when we first started this project, but sadly, no one ever picked it. I was secretly hoping I would get it. We weren’t supposed to work with the albums we had offered, but I would have made an impassioned plea! And maybe that’s how I will propose starting off our next round of writings. It would be interesting to use an album I am intimately familiar with as inspiration…to see how it differs from using one I’m hearing for the first time.
As a fellow (though not NEARRRRLY so successful) cross-disciplinary artist, I resonate with her work and aesthetic on sooo many levels. She truly pushes the envelope as an artist whose medium happens to mainly be music. She brings craft, technique, artistry and abundant magic to her A-game, and I totally aspire to those things as an artist. She is my spirit animal for all these reasons, and a couple more, which I will share in Part Two of this blog post…look for it in a few weeks! Until then, if you haven't heard the wider body of her work, you should listen to her!
Whilst frittering time away on meaningless interweb activity yesterday, I came across a quiz on Facebook called "Who is your spirit musician?". Well, of course I had to take it. I had assumed it was going to be musicians of a more mainstream/classic appeal, people like maybe Taylor Swift or Michael Jackson, or lately my newly-beloved Jimi Hendrix and the like, so I was very amused to see which of these folks the quiz would end up choosing for me after I gave all my answers. And I was SOOOO tickled pink to get BJÖRK!
I must admit: I came into my admiration for her kinda late. I'd known who she was, and had heard whichever songs made their way into public consciousness from both her body of solo work as well as from The Sugarcubes, and of course dismissed her weird red-carpet outfits. But she didn't seriously hit my radar as an artist until I saw the movie Dancer in the Dark, back in fall of 2000.
Not only did I enjoy her performance as the main character, Selma, but the absolute BEST THING about the movie was the music, which she'd created specifically for the film. I was fascinated by incredible things she did with non-traditional "instruments", and the music served as a completely delightful soundscape used in an unabashedly Brechtian manner to give audience and Selma alike some reprieve from the decidedly dark and depressing storyline. I immediately ran out to purchase the soundtrack, Selmasongs, and after giving it a few listens, pretty much went out and bought everything of hers I could get my hands on, and was, to say the least, NOT disappointed. Her music became the preferred theme songs of much of my adult life.
Björk, you see, is not merely a vocalist or musician. Though she is a force to be reckoned with as both, she is, more than anything, a consummate multidisciplinary artist who plays with sound, video & lyric in a masterful, unapologetic and creative way. There is simply NO ONE ELSE OUT THERE MAKING ART like her.
I threw her name in our Metronome Society *hat* when we first started this project, but sadly, no one ever picked it. I was secretly hoping I would get it. We weren’t supposed to work with the albums we had offered, but I would have made an impassioned plea! And maybe that’s how I will propose starting off our next round of writings. It would be interesting to use an album I am intimately familiar with as inspiration…to see how it differs from using one I’m hearing for the first time.
As a fellow (though not NEARRRRLY so successful) cross-disciplinary artist, I resonate with her work and aesthetic on sooo many levels. She truly pushes the envelope as an artist whose medium happens to mainly be music. She brings craft, technique, artistry and abundant magic to her A-game, and I totally aspire to those things as an artist. She is my spirit animal for all these reasons, and a couple more, which I will share in Part Two of this blog post…look for it in a few weeks! Until then, if you haven't heard the wider body of her work, you should listen to her!
RSS Feed