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Björk tells Russian authorities to let Pussy Riot go

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Björk has posted a ‘statement in defense of Pussy Riot’ on her website:

dear folks

here comes a statement in defense of pussy riot :

as a musician and a mother i would like to express i fiercely dont agree with them being put to jail because of their peaceful protest performance . they are currently standing trial and facing seven years in prison for this .

in my opinion the russian authorities should let them go home to their families and children


i would like to invite pussy riot to join me in a particular song on stage : which was written for all enhancement of justice ( you can guess : once , which one )

warmth , björk

Help free Pussy Riot here.
 

 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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08.10.2012
04:20 pm
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Bjork announces ‘Biophilia’ live shows in New York
01.12.2012
01:47 pm
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Great news for people living in NYC, Bjork is bringing her phenomenal Biophilia live experience to the city next month. The shows will be taking place over two different residencies; one at the New York Hall of Science (six dates in all, between February 3rd and 18th) and one at the Roseland Ballroom (four dates there, between February 22nd and March 2nd).

While the Roseland Ballroom is more intimate, the grapevine tells me the Hall of Science will be better as it will facilitate the whole 360 degree stage show, which should hopefully incorporate giant tesla coils, homemade instruments, a large female choir and the full surround sound PA and plasma screens. I was lucky enough to catch a Biophilia show last year in Manchester, and it ranks as one of the best live shows I have ever seen. I reviewed it for Dangerous Minds, and you can read that here.

There have also been Biophilia shows announced at various European and South American festivals over the summer - for more info on the shows (and links to buy tickets for individual performances), visit the Facebook page for Bjork events.

Here’s an inkling of what you can expect:

Bjork “Joga” (Live at Manchester International Festival 2011)
 

 
Thanks to Lee Baxter.

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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01.12.2012
01:47 pm
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Bjork teams up again with Michel Gondry for ‘Crystalline’ video
07.26.2011
12:31 pm
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New video from Bjork’s Biophilia project: “Crystalline” was directed by longtime Bjork collaborator Michel Gondry, using elements from her iPhone app.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.26.2011
12:31 pm
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‘Thunderbolt, Lightning, Arpeggio’ : Bjork’s magical ‘Biophilia’ show reviewed


 
Some live shows are great, some live shows are awesome, and then there are the live shows that are so good they feel like genuine magickal occurrences - a culmination of sound, vision, venue, performance and atmosphere. Bjork’s Biophilia, which is currently making its international debut with a sold out run at the Manchester International Festival, is definitely one of those. Clichéd terms like “elf-like” have haunted Bjork for years, but when an artist can pull together a show that is this all consuming, this transformative and powerful, there is definitely some truth to those clichés. 

Everything about this show is unique. On a baking hot July afternoon we are ushered into a blacked out, cavernous Victorian warehouse space - in the middle sits a round stage, flanked by instruments, and overhead hangs a neat circle of 8 large screens. At one corner of the stage sits a pipe organ, a harpsichord and new instrument called a “gameleste” (a cross between a gamelan and a celeste). These instruments have been programmed to play themselves, a fact which is relayed to the audience by webcams projecting live onto the screens. In another corner sits a huge, manually operated music box, amplified through two very large gramophone trumpets, and beside it stands two new, purposely built, pendulum operated harps, The thudding bass line for the opening track “Thunderbolt” is provided by a large Tesla coil, which spits sparks of electricity over the crowd’s heads.

Still obsessed with the sounds and textures of modern electronica, Bjork underpins all this bizarre musical automata with sub-bass and electronic drums, played live by percussionist Manu Delago and music director Matt Robertson. Plucked chamber music collides with sliced-and-diced breakbeats, booming 808 bass lines accompany delicate organ pieces. It’s a perfect combination of the past and the future (and which is which is hard to tell). The sound world Bjork has created for this show is extraordinary, but it is the choir that really tips this performance over into something otherworldly. Featuring 26 female Icelandic singers, moments of harmony and discordance float from the stage that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Quite simply, this is a new kind of sacred music.
 

 
The much-trumpeted visuals are gorgeous. Animated cells sing and coo while spitting out cuddly-looking viruses. Mushrooms grow and expand in stop-motion, a seal carcass is consumed by underwater worms and starfish, and we zoom through veins and arteries while triggering musical notation á la Audiosurf. Bjork has taken a bit of flack for her use of an iPad in Biophilia, but if this is what the actual apps look like, well that’s fine with me. We keep returning to images of the solar system, of galaxies floating in space. There seems to be a theme of circular motion and symmetry here, a music of the spheres if you will, but for Bjork this works on a microbiological scale, as well as the cosmological. At one point she informs us that the rate at which our fingernails grow is the same as the Mid Altantic Ridge drifts. It’s psychedelic without being druggy. In fact, with the heat, the darkness and the spectacle, this is a show where no extra stimulus is needed.

The music itself is largely new and very good too, but there are some classics from her back catalogue thrown in (namely “Unravel”, “A Hidden Place” and a gorgeous choral version of “Isobel”). The new songs are each prefaced by a voice-over by natural historian David Attenborough, which manages the trick of both commenting on the music and unifying it. The show ends with a rousing, triumphant version of “Earth Intruders”, Bjork in a massive orange wig flanked by the choir who are wearing matching gold and blue tunics. We seem to be inundated with crazily-dressed lady pop at this point in time, but we shouldn’t forget that Bjork is a true pioneer of this, and on this showing she still does it the best. Biophilia is set to tour later this year, and I urge anyone with an interest in music to go to a show - it really is that good. 2011 is only half over but I seriously doubt I’ll see another show to equal it. There is no footage of Biophilia yet, as the audience had been asked not to take pictures or make video recordings of the performance. It is a mark of the kind of respect the crowd has for Bjork that they comply to this request - well for the most part , anyway.

Here is the audience’s reaction to Bjork’s Biophilia after the opening night on Thursday June 30th:
 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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07.04.2011
08:28 am
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Norn Cutson’s Fabulous ‘Record Collection’
02.14.2011
07:50 pm
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Norn Cutson is an artist based in New York. His work is beautiful and joyous, and always makes me smile. And that’s probably his intention for he describes himself as “an illustrator in NYC bringin’ lots o’ warmth & humor to the world!”

Most likely, you’ll have seen his fabulous illustrations of singers, actresses and pop stars in magazines, on posters, or in his wonderful art book Record Collection, which tells the story of his life through the music he loves.

The novelist Lawrence Durrell once wrote “Music is only love looking for words.” In Norn’s case “Music is only love looking for pictures.”

In Record Collection Norn has re-interpreted the album covers of the music that has been central to his life - from Blondie and Throbbing Gristle to Yoko Ono and Dionne Warwick. Music has always been important to Norn, as he explained to Dangerous Minds.

‘Music was a huge thing for us growing up. My parents love music and they had big record collections; my Dad’s a lot of Martin Denny, Herb Apert, Jackie Gleason and some classical pretensions; Mom’s lots of musicals, soundtracks & pop. My sister & I quickly learned that you could control the mood of the house by choosing the right music.’

It is said, “Artists are born not made,” which is true of Norn, for as far back as he can remember he has been drawing.

‘Before I could even sit up by myself, my Mom would guide my hand with a crayon, making shapes on paper. As I got older, we would play a game transforming the shapes into animals. So I’ve really been drawing all my life.’

From crayon animals, he started copying the Funnies.

‘I remember at 5 years old locking myself in my room and teaching myself to draw Charles Schulz’ Peanuts characters, because I wanted to tell my own stories with them. You can still totally see that influence in my art.

‘I’m always drawing. Even when I am not physically drawing, I am still working things out. I have more images in my mind than I will ever have time to bring into physical reality.

‘Art is Alchemy. It’s all about snatching the image out of the ether, solidifying it in your mind, forcing the image out of your shoulder, down your arm and out of the body onto paper, so the rest of the world can see.’

His book Record Collection is a wonderful treat, a brilliant collection of pop history that synthesizes Norn’s life thru music and art.

‘My Record Collection series came out of finding a new way to tell my story. I’ve drawn autobiographical comics for decades. I love it, but sometimes when you are using words, there’s too much room for misunderstanding. Plus, I have a tendency to get sappy in my writing.

‘With Record Collection, I can evoke a time & emotion just using imagery, and its better that it’s open for everyone to project their own experience on. Peggy Lee might mean one thing to me, and something totally different for you, but we’ll both have a valid response to her image.

‘One of the things (cartoonist and author) Lynda Barry teaches is to always work in a series; that way, you build momentum from one piece to the next, and before you know it, you’ve got a body of work.

Record Collection also came out of that idea. But what would it be a series about?

‘At first, I thought Hindu gods & goddesses, because they would be fun to research & draw; but then I realized, to be authentic, the series had to be something that was meaningful for me, not just something I’d read about. It had to be something that really happened to me.

‘I hadn’t grown up with any religion, so what could I use as symbols that other people could see their own stories in, that was coming from a spiritual place?

‘And then of course, I knew: MUSIC was the belief system we were raised with. And with that, I’ve tapped into a series that can last me the rest of my life.

‘I believe The Goddess sends messages through the shuffle feature of our ipods. She may not be playing what we want to hear, but she’s playing what we *need* to hear. What does this song mean to me now? What did it mean when I first heard it? How does this song apply to my life?

‘Sometimes, you can use music as a time machine to go back in time and fix things, or at least understand them better.’

Volume 2 of Record Collection will be published in March, and then Norn will be working on a book of autobiographical comics. He is also planning another exhibition.

‘I’d like to have another show of my work. Seeing people’s smiles when they look at my art is a wonderful feeling. Nothing makes me happier than knowing there’s a place in the word for my images, and that I have the ability to translate them into a form that other people can see and enjoy. I feel if we have that blessing, its our responsibility to serve it.’

Check out more of Norn’s work here and on his Pinterest page.
 
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More of Norn’s fabulous pics, plus bonus clip, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.14.2011
07:50 pm
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Bjork Kicks-off 3-Day Karaoke Campaign Against Take-over of Icelandic Resources
01.08.2011
11:53 am
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Icelandic singer Bjork is hosting a three-day karaoke marathon to draw attention to her country’s natural resources and a possible takeover by a Canadian energy company, the Toronto Sun reports.

The off-beat singer has launched a petition to call for a referendum to stop the takeover of HS Orka by Vancouver-based Magma Energy.

HS Oka produces geothermal and thermal power.

Concerns raised last summer after the sale was made public were put to rest in September, Magma Energy said, after a special committee appointed by the Icelandic government “concluded that Magma acted in full compliance with Icelandic law.”

Even though Magma Energy announced on its website in December is has completed obligations for the purchase of 98.53% of HS Orka, the wire service AFP reported Bjork said “the fight to keep it in the hands of the Icelandic people is not over,” during a press conference Thursday.

On her website, Bjork encouraged people to come to the event and sing their favourite songs.

“Elves, hidden people, sports people, hobby musicians and professionals ... everyone who cares for Iceland, come and join forces and perform a powerful ode to the nature of Iceland,” a press release for the event said, the Iceland Review reported. “Let’s bring our natural resources back to us with song.”

Bjork was set to perform along with other well-known Icelandic musicians.

For more information about the campaign, check here and click English version.  Now, here’s a video, via Icelandic Chronicles, of Bjork singing Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” at the karaoke, from 6 January 2011.
 

 
With thanks to Norn Cutson
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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01.08.2011
11:53 am
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The Album Bj?ɬ?rk Doesn’t Want You to Hear
08.03.2009
12:55 am
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Many think Bj?ɬ?rk’s album Debut was, um, her debut album. But it was not. Oh no.

Actually, Bj?ɬ?rk dropped her first jams back in 1977, when she was 11. And it was awesome. The album even charted. She throws down awesome covers of songs like “The Fool on the Hill” in Icelandic to beats that would put Disco Duck himself to shame. I mean, she’s Bj?ɬ?rk. She’s an international treasure. Even the album she did when she was 11 is better than anything most musicians will ever even be able to think about possibly doing in their whole careers.

But oh no, it is not to be heard. For the Goddess of Iceland hath decreed you may not buy or hear it. Apparently she deliberately keeps it out of circulation or popping up in the press. Which is a shame, because it’s a great album, but if that’s how she feels, than so be it, and far from me to suggest that it might be available on the Internet, especially not here. All hail Iceland and its Pixie Goddess.

Posted by Jason Louv
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08.03.2009
12:55 am
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