MUSIC BUZZ: Björk
It’s all about Bjork this week: after her album “leaked” she descided to just put it out on iTunes, weeks ahead of the official release. Why not?
Pitchfork also published a stunning interview with her. For me it was an eye-opener. Of her, I had in my mind the picture of a woman, who wakes up with a grand idea, then summons with a flick of her hand, let’s say, an all-female Icelandic brass orchestra or a bunch of iOS programmers to help her realize it. Looks like it not that easy, even for arguably one of the greatest artists on the planet. She says about how she feels about Vulnicura:
I’m a little nervous. Definitely. Especially coming from an album like Biophilia, which was about the universe. This is more of a traditional singer/songwriter thing. When I started writing, I fought against it. I thought it was way too boring and predictable. But most of the time, it just happens; there’s nothing you can do. You have to let it be what it is.
Then there is battling the widely held perception that behind every sucessful female musician is a male producer who pulls the strings:
For example, I did 80% of the beats on Vespertine and it took me three years to work on that album, because it was all microbeats—it was like doing a huge embroidery piece. Matmos came in the last two weeks and added percussion on top of the songs, but they didn’t do any of the main parts, and they are credited everywhere as having done the whole album. [Matmos’] Drew [Daniel] is a close friend of mine, and in every single interview he did, he corrected it. And they don’t even listen to him.
For Vulnicura, the supposed mastermind is once again Arca, who people liked to incorrectly credit already for FKA twigs musical vision. (Arca seems to be an allround nice person and I’m just jealous that he gets to hang out with my favorite musicians).
As a follow up to Björk’s interview, Slate lists the continuing battle of some of the most talented artists to be recognized as the main creative force behing their work:
If you read interviews with female songwriters, producers, and musicians, you know that’s true, because you’ve heard these stories again and again.
Last but not least, I have to revise my somewhat dismissive statement about Björk’s new album last week: I bought the album, I like it and will write a review.