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When you think your appreciation for Björk has reached the top, you can still be surprised. Personally, the appreciation I have for this one Icelandic person has grown and grown. First of all, by her music: Every time she tries something different. She completely works out her idea on every album. But always with her ever-recognizable voice on top of it, whether she's with the Icelandic rock band the Sugarcubes, or on Homogenic with only beats and strings. A voice that isn't made for everyone: While some can only adore it, others would rather hear their neighbor's cat. Another reason for my appreciation is related to the documentaries about her life. Since Debut, there has been a lot of attention for the person Björk, which also, unfortunately, resulted in a nervous breakdown and triggered her to attack a journalist in front of a lot of spinning cameras. What I instead see is Björk walking around in an Icelandic landscape with her little electronic box, into which she records the sounds around her, sounds like those from a geyser. And afterwards, she puts different layers over these sounds and uses them in her songs. She dares to try different things again and again with so many eyes on her. And she's passionate. A documentary showed her trying to instruct a string section on how to play their part on 'Hunter.' The way she moves, smiles, puts her arms up in the air, the way she lives in her own world of sound: you see her becoming the sound she wants to describe. The fact that she lives for music became extremely clear when she started her acting career in Lars von Trier's Dancer In The Dark. She played a magnificent part, but afterwards, she decided never do it again because she missed the music so much. The movie was a collaboration between von Trier and Björk, she being responsible for the sizeable number of musical pieces in the play. Her role was partially a piece of typecasting: she played Selma, who was constantly dreaming about musicals, constantly busy with music.
I thought I reached the final peak of appreciation when I first saw her live. There it was: the voice I'd heard so many times, but now for real. Filling the big theater, where she walked around in her big dress. The concert was legendary, and thinking about it still makes my flesh creep. A little woman who decided that there also had to be things like a big string section, an Eskimo choir, and the appearance of the electronica made by Matmos. One person, who made the whole crowd watch in astonishment. And someone who gives you another insight into her music life. Family Tree is a box set with a total of six CDs. There are four sections: Strings, Beats, Roots, and her Greatest Hits.
The string section, performed by the Brodsky Quartet, also features some songs from Homogenic, on which they already played an essential role. These versions are imaginable, but that's different on 'Cover Me' with a lot of free interpretation, or the accompaniment of 'Play Dead' and 'I've Seen It All,' the latter without Thom Yorke. The ten tracks on the Roots section also feature some songs she wrote for the Sugercubes, on her flute at the age of 15. Roots is also meant to demonstrate the parts where she took the biggest leaps as a songwriter. Only, the reason why she put the string version of 'Joga' on this section isn't really clear, but surely there will be an explanation for this. Then we have the experiments she did with electronica, after leaving The Sugarcubes. These sessions, with Graham Messey and Mark Bell, are the first hints that electronica already played a bigger role for her than someone at that point could expect. And last, but not least, she compiled her own greatest hits, not to be mixed up with the Greatest Hits album that's also available right now. But the choices aren't that surprising: from 'Venus As A Boy' to 'Isobel,' from 'Bachelorette' to 'Scatterheart,' and from 'Pegan Poetry' to 'I've Seen It All,' this time with Thom Yorke. Of course the other sections are the most interesting parts of this box set: They are the things we didn't hear before and give us even extra insight and a lot of enjoyment. Family Tree is not only essential for the Björk fans, but for everybody who can stand her voice, because it's another fascinating proof that Björk is really an incomparable, multidimensional person, singer, and musician.
http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/bj-rk/family-tree-box-set/2099/
Meer Björk op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/bj-rk
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