Björk Project Part 1: Prelude

Matthew Eilar2 Comments

Like most thinking people, he admires Björk…

-Alex Ross, writing on Esa-Pekka Salonen

That extraordinary statement is found in Alex Ross’ new book, Listen to This. In another chapter, he profiles Björk, presenting her as a rare artist with a unique aesthetic that borrows freely from many musical traditions while still retaining its own identity. Ross observes her working method during the creation of her 2004 album Medúlla. She seems to work as both a composer, holding an idea for a piece in her mind, and as an Eno-style studio technician, blending a multitude of tracks and takes into a whole. Yet still the boldness of the statement surprised me. Not only do thinking people admire Björk, but most thinking people admire Björk. I recognized that the statement is hyperbole, yet I was eager to discover the music that would lead someone (much less a critic that I greatly admire like Ross) to make that hyperbolic statement. So I decided to listen to her catalog.

Björk was an artist that I only knew at the periphery. She existed more in my consciousness as a pop culture figure than as an artist. Before embarking on this project, I was only familiar with three of her songs: “Hyperballad” from Post, “Jóga” from Homogenic and “The Dull Flame of Desire” from Volta. I liked all three of these songs, but they seemed to exist in a musical space that I couldn’t quantify, and for whatever reason, I didn’t pursue the music further. The only other time I remember listening to her music was to play Medúlla once during high school. I didn’t get it, and since I didn’t get it, I assumed there was nothing to get.

Maybe because I’m more musically mature this time around, maybe because I didn’t start with the most difficult and abstract album first, but I’ve completely fallen in love with Björk. Her music is vibrant but frequently profound, always interesting, and can withstand close and repeated listening. This week, I’m going to go through Björk’s catalog, from 1993’s Debut to 2007’s Volta.

[EDIT: It’s inevitable that I write that I’m going to post these all in a week, then get completely behind. These posts are taking a little longer than I expected to (in a good way!).]

The best part of waking up…

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I had a singularly pleasant experience today. I took a nap this afternoon after classes with my music on, and it played through to Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto. I woke up to the transcendent moment in the second movement where Berg quotes Bach’s chorale Es ist genug verbatim. It was a wonderful way to wake up.

Broken Oates

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A video for Broken Bell’s “The Ghost Inside” using the music video from Hall and Oates’ “Private Eyes”

Seriously, this might be the best thing I’ve ever seen. The slightly unsynchronized mouth is a little creepy, but it’s amazing how well the original video lines up with the Broken Bells song.

School has been overwhelming of late, and that’s why I haven’t been blogging as consistently as I would like. I’ve always had an independent streak in regards to school and, for right now, I’ve set “not getting kicked out” as my bar to clear. Still, I’m trying to balance demanding classes, instrumental lessons and other musical activities while keeping my sanity. It’s not easy.

My organ lessons are moving forward once again, after a couple weeks of illness and school breaks. I once again have access to the organ in the Agnes Flanagan Chapel at Lewis & Clark College. I’m working on short pieces by Bach, Handel, Helmut Walcha and Clerambault.

Both of the choirs that I sing in are coming upon performance time. In the large choir, we’re singing Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes (the video above is #15, one of the most beautiful in the set). In the chamber choir, we’re singing a bunch of pieces on the text “Sic Deus dilexit mundum” (God so loved the world). John Stainer’s setting of the English text:

On my own time, I’ve been deeply immersing myself in the music of  Björk. A couple of years ago, I gave her music a shot, but didn’t get into it (I now know that it’s probably because I started with Medúlla, her least accessible and most abstract album). After reading Alex Ross’ atypically hyperbolic assertion that all thinking people listen to Björk in his new collection of essays, Listen to This, I thought that I should check it out and decide for myself. My conclusion will have to wait for another Post, but in about a week I’ve listened to all of her studio albums.

 

David Lang

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This tidbit in this Capital New York article on David Lang made me laugh:

He met Michael Gordon at the Aspen Music Festival when Gordon was 21 and Lang was 20. Gordon was the first person Lang had come across who knew anything about new music; since each was possessive of the Glass and Reich music they both adored, they hated each other immediately. It was only a few years later, when both were in grad school at Yale, that they quickly became best friends, sitting next to each other for hours and writing music.

Isn’t that just the way that it goes?

Mad Men Season 4 Wrap-up

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Sunday night’s “Tomorrowland” was the season finale of what has been a very good season of Mad Men. The first two seasons of the show were filled with twists and revelations as we encountered different aspects of Don Draper. In this season, we pretty much know who he is, and yet we’re still surprised by the things that he does (and there’s plenty of this in the finale). I want to talk about the things that really worked for me this season, and there will be spoilers:

Continue reading “Mad Men Season 4 Wrap-up” →