August 31, 2004
Newsweek
Voices Carry: Pop eccentric Bjork vocalizes with NEWSWEEK's Lorraine Ali about her instrument-free album
Sept. 6 issue - Defying expectations has always been Bjork's favorite game. The eccentric musician from Reykjavik has experimented with electronica, show tunes and the sound of crunching snow. Her latest album, "Medulla," is almost entirely a cappella. It embraces Bjork's soaring harmonies, Rahzel the human beat box, an Inuit throat singer and Gregorian chanters. The 38-year-old explains why instruments bore her and defends her newest flight of fancy. Read the interview Here
New York Times
REVIEW
"Medulla" (Latin for marrow) finds nearly all of its contrasts in the spectrum of vocal sounds: percussive, sustained, crystalline, raw. It's not obsessively purist; Bjork does allow herself an occasional synthesizer line or piano chord, and often the voices are sampled and programmed like dance tracks. "Medulla" sidesteps rock's longstanding a cappella style, doo-wop, to reach a sonic realm only Bjork would concoct. She's gone globe-hopping to find very particular extensions of herself.
When there's a beat, it comes from a human beatbox (or one whose sounds have been rearranged by programmers). Classical choirs provide airborne harmonies that suggest composers like Penderecki or Arvo Pärt. Meanwhile, Bjork and guests like Mike Patton (from Faith No More), Robert Wyatt (the British art-rock songwriter) and Tanya Tagaq (an Inuit throat-singer) add mews, moans, counterpoint and guttural grunts.
The album includes vocal fantasias that lean toward chamber music, with many Bjorks looped and echoing, alongside songs that are obviously but distantly connected to hip-hop. There are also glimpses of Bulgarian women's choirs, the hooting polyphony of central African pgymies and the primal vocalisms of Meredith Monk. Throughout the album, the music is transparent, with each component distinctly audible, even when Bjork's melody is strung between a dissonant choir and a growled beat. More
Medula is available now from Primarily A Cappella where it is currently on sale.
Listen to "Oceania" here.
Posted by acapnews at August 31, 2004 9:50 PM
