At age 52, Björk released Utopia, her 9th studio album. Thinking about how incredible this is sort of washes over me in waves. What I mean by this is, almost as far as I can remember Björk has been there, making an impact with every release. She has redefined music transcending any definable genre in every discipline of art. Utopia is no exception and could be her best album yet. But this isn't what I want to talk about. What I want to examine is an artist transcending every aspect of art for an entire lifetime and how it affected me as an artist.
Björk arrived in my life around 1993 with her studio album Debut. Being young, not knowing much and having little access to the internet at that time; I thought this was the beginning of her career. At that time in my life we lived in a tiny town in Michigan, I had to ride my bike into town to use the library internet. I couldn't stop thinking about her music so I did just that so I could learn what I could about her. I discovered The Sugarcubes and her actual debut which was self titled album recorded at age 11. The album consisted mostly of Icelandic covers, but she wrote 1 song herself. I was roughly this age when I discovered this and it lit a fire inside me. I had already submitted to the fact that my life was going to revolve around music and film making. It dawned upon me that I need to start thinking about what it is I want to do and how to do it right then. Björk, of course, is a far cry from a small town American with basically no access to fundamental artistic education. Björk is from Iceland, where the arts are revered as highly as any other profession. She also came from a family of artistic professionals who encouraged and enhanced her access to success. I certainly have encouraging parents, but not artistic. That never held me back, it did however, make it hard to find a mentor and a definable path in art. So the best places for me to look was anything I could get my hands on and caught my interest. I would study art I liked in an out, never assuming I knew enough about it so I could keep digging. Björk expressed how much she didn't like her self titled release because she wanted to make more original music that she had control over. This is something I related to at the time because I couldn't understand why people liked most of the music on in pop culture. I felt it was the result of people just doing what someone else wanted them to do. It signaled to me that as an artist it is wise to remain true to what you want to do. The music that would run in my mind was nothing like the music that was out at the time. Trip Hop and EDM were emerging and the overall sounds were speaking to my soul and starting to define where I wanted to go with sound. In Björk's album Debut she explored the world of Trip Hop and Electronic music while combining them with traditional instruments and pop sensibilities. To me, this was the future. She wasn't the first to do this by any means. But she was the bravest and I felt like this was just the beginning for her. While I was made fun of for my love for Björk's music by my friends, it never deterred me from defending her. Most people had a hard time digesting her music. Completely misunderstanding anything that didn't sound "normal" and easily dismiss it. Yes, she was very misunderstood then, she still is but for different reasons these days.
Once Björk released Post it was clear that she was going to be my biggest inspiration. That record still felt like a person fighting against the popular norms of music. However, her true originality was beginning to shine through the cracks. Something that struck me at the time was that she was working with artists that I already thought were incredible. From Spike Jonze to Michel Gondry to Tricky to my favorite music video director Chris Cunningham. I felt like Björk has a similar artistic pallet as myself. This record is my favorite of hers to this day. The reason for that is a combination of timing, age, nostalgia and appreciation of the overall record. When Post was released I was still trying to understand music as a whole and where I fit into it. So Post grew with me, it was there at a time when I was at my most impressionable and was a solace during a very confusing time in life. I had a friend who had some synths and drum machines. As soon as I touched these instruments I knew where I belonged. And the composition of Post was at the forefront of my mind. But I didn't realize how much that mattered until I became an adult.
After Björk's LP Post I continued to remain fascinated by everything she did. Each album pushed me closer and closer to who I would eventually become as an artist. When I got out of high-school and started getting into music more seriously Björk was always right there for me. Releasing more art than I could digest. I started going to raves, DJing, making electronic music, hip hop and punk rock with my friends. I eventually took on DJing and recording full time in my early 20's. I had still been following Björk but I felt like I never had time to truly dissect her music and art. I started becoming overwhelmed with all the projects I was involved in and realized that I was doing everything for everyone else. Yet had not really done anything I could call my own. I came across an early interview with Björk where she was talking about doing 50 things a day and giving too much of yourself to other people's goals. It was a statement that rang like a bell. So I broke up with my girlfriend, who was toxic anyway, took a 9-5 in low voltage (cable TV , alarm systems, etc) and moved to Virginia. This is where I had time to go back at catch up on the deeper aspects of all of Björk's releases. This was the Homogenic, Vespertine and Medúlla era, so I had my work cut out for me to say the least. Volta came out roughly around this time and changed so much more for me. That was the "you can do that?" album. The compositions were wild and free, it felt like every emotion all at once. It was about this time when I found the documentary "Zeitgeist". The combination of Volta and Zeitgeist couldn't have articulated the times more perfectly. I remember watching Zeitgeist, then walking to the store to buy groceries. I felt like I had been color blind my whole life and somehow I could see a new color in the spectrum. Everything looked more vibrant, bright, contrasting and more lucid than ever before. It wasn't the actual content of the film that affected me. They really just said stuff everyone already knew. It was the combination of both Zeitgeist and Volta. In particular the song "Declare Independence" where, after she sings the chorus, begins with "start your own currency". What a brave statement, of course I had no idea that this could be possible until discovering Bitcoin, but the concept resonated with me. It spoke to my more "Anarchist" sensibilities. Since then I have never stopped being obsessed with how the art industry operates. It helped me navigate my career making decisions while exploring my true intentions as an artist. Around this time Film became the most dominating factor in my life, along with my fiancee who later became my wife. I had to start making decisions that were not only going to help me but help my family and contribute to positive change in the world around me. It was through studying Björk's music that helped me find words to express what I needed to do.
It was around this time when I discovered "Dancer In The Dark" starring Björk and David Morse and was directed by Lars Von Trier. This was an ensemble of artists I thought were brilliant and ahead of their time. I was only mad that I didn't know about it sooner. Björk had already cemented herself as an all-inclusive artist, but this was basically the factor that made her the ultimate artist for me. To me, an artist has to clear a few filters before I consider them untouchable and important. Filter 1, they never release anything bad, I may misunderstand it but it has to be well made and with passion. Filter 2 is they have to be multi-faceted and well knowledge in all the art they touch. Filter 3 is the overall decisions they have made throughout their career and how they use those decisions to curate their art. With Dancer In The Dark Björk had cleared every single one of those filters. That movie moves and haunts me to this day.
During the gap between Volta and Biophilia artists like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Amon Tobin and Vanitian Snares had been dominating my listening spectrum. Biophilia was basically the best parts of that whole world of music. I feel like this was finally the grand opening of Björk's full expression and utilization of things that inspired her. The album was released with a set a tuning forks, an app/video game, and a video with Michel Gondry. She also collaborated with 16bit signaling a direction in electronic music that would grow with her subsequent records. I couldn't believe she was working with "these" artists because I had such a hard time find people who knew anything about them. Again Björk was reminding us that she knows what the underground music scenes were doing and she would utilize the things happening in an organic way.
Vulnicura and Utopia both came after another 4 year anticipation of new music from Björk. Both records sort of called back to how Radiohead approached Kid A and Amnesiac, being that they are meant to be a part A and B of 1 story. Björk brought Arca in to collaborate on the production. Arca was on my radar simply for being the bravest artist in avant-garde electronic music. I was again stunned at how she was always working with who I happened to be studying at the time. On Utopia she let Arca take a much bigger role in the production of the album. He even forcing Björk to go places she had never been with her music. Through Vulincura and Utopia Björk collaborated with Andrew Thomas Huang who was taking the spotlight in my inspirations as a music video creator. You can tell Björk was giving these brilliant artists a ton of creative freedom while seamlessly collaborating and expressing her goals. Utopia could be her most well composed and executed album of her entire career as a result.
There is so much more that I wanted to talk about such as Voltiac and Drawing Restraint and how they helped me understand bravery and minimalism. Or how her live performances encompasses all your senses. But I decided to keep this article focused on the goal for this blog series. Björk was the first one I decided to cover because she has been the most important artist my whole artistic life. She has consistently amazed and inspired me. Many other writers and journalists have covered the making and composition of her art. I think it is important to express how they have touched my life and career. My hope is to connect with more people Björk and other artists have affected. And to put my humble thank you into the universe for an entire lifetime of inspiration. Of course I am not nearly at the caliber of the artists I am inspired by. But without them how would we artists know what to reach for? Björk has always come through at the time I needed to be reminded to get back to work. After all this time 1 simple question has always lingered in my brain. Why Björk? Why is she the the most important artist to me? I still don't fully understand the answer to this question. But I will leave you a quote from Glenn A. Baker that I think articulates why her art will leave a lasting imprint on anyone's mind whether they like her or not. "Her voice actually goes to the back of your brain and sort of twirls in the dark recesses of your mind. You can't actually get rid of her."
With that I don't think there is anything else I can say. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to remain consistent with this blog series. Write in the comments how Björk has impacted your life. What is your favorite album or song? Where do you think she is going to next? Have you seen her live?
Namaste
XD
