There is one aspect of Björk’s music that no one can deny: its instantly
recognizable trademark sweet craziness which makes it attractive and different
from all other acts.
اضافة اعلان
Fossora, her
latest album, released last September, is strongly built on fantasy, and talks
of death, Earth, feminism, and hope.
In addition to
Björk’s distinguishable singing style, which is certainly the main ingredient
here, Fossora makes intensive and unusual use of instruments, like bass
clarinet and cellos, performed like in modern, atonal classical compositions.
It is hard to tell if these are always acoustic, natural instruments, or
electronic sounds, especially the strings.
And this makes
the entire sonic atmosphere rather strange, at least if you think these are pop
songs — the pop qualifier just does not fit here. Experimental would be more
like it.
The surreal art
cover of the album gives a good idea of its musical contents. A substantial
amount of studio work and post-production must have been involved in the making
of the album and its 13 tracks: it is all very elaborate.
In Björk’s own
words: “Each album always starts with a feeling that I try to shape into sound.
This time around the feeling was landing on the earth and digging my feet into
the ground. (…) Fossora is a word I made up, it is the feminine of fossore
(digger, delver, ditcher), so in short it means ‘she who digs’ (into the
ground).”
There are no
easy-to-follow regular rhythms, beats or melodies, and, of course, no sing
along songs here. The phrases are cut, scattered, with quickly changing motifs
and patterns. This gives you the feeling that you are watching a strange,
eerie, and futuristic movie, to which this is the matching soundtrack.
The complexity,
the broken rhythms make the music very difficult for the musicians to
interpret, and for the listeners to follow. At times, this “difficult” trait
reminded me of the classical music of avant-garde classical composer Iannis
Xenakis. Avant-garde pop is actually the qualifier I would keep if I had to use
only one expression to describe Fossora.
From the first time you play it, you find Fossora very interesting to listen to, and then it keeps you focused and curious to hear more.
Björk sings with
her known high-pitched, tone-perfect voice. Technically speaking, this is as
outstanding as it can be. The control over the dynamics, quickly and accurately
shifting from soft to loud, from sweet to strong, energetic and dramatic, are
all perfectly executed by this singer who hails from Iceland. All the vocal
parts, arrangements, and the complex harmonies are superb.
The album is
very well produced and recorded. It brings with it uncommon musical creativity
and originality, the kind that is rarely found these days. It is also
brilliantly sung by Björk and skillfully interpreted by all the musicians and
instrumentalists who participated in the project. In addition to saying it is avant-garde,
I would also qualify it as intelligent music, even intellectual — meant here as
a compliment.
From the first
time you play it, you find Fossora very interesting to listen to, and then it
keeps you focused and curious to hear more. This is how I felt when I
discovered it.
The new album
has already received excellent global reviews and ratings, with 97 percent of
listeners saying that they like it. Just be sure to approach it with an open
mind, for it is experimental, after all.
Would I like to
play the album over and over again? I am not too sure, for, to truly appreciate
such music, you would have to be in a special mood; it really depends on the
moment you are living. This is true except perhaps for the very last track,
titled Her Mother’s House, that I find particularly compelling and that is more
easily playable than the rest of the album. The song carries emotion that the
other 12 pieces just do not.
Judging by the
number of plays shown on the Spotify audio streaming platform, however, it is not
the most played song. It only got 370,000 plays, whereas the first track,
Atopos, got 3 million and the title track Fossora 1 million.
Reminiscing
about Björk’s early works, I found myself missing It’s Oh So Quiet, her song
from 1995.
Jean-Claude Elias is a computer engineer and a classically
trained pianist and guitarist. He has been regularly writing IT articles,
reviewing music albums, and covering concerts for more than 30 years.
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