MUSIC REVIEW: BJORK - 'BIOPHILIA'

An Electronic Album of Organically Grown Weirdness & Natural Wonder

By: Jesse Livingston

October 13, 2011

(One Little Indian / Nonesuch) There are some things you may not know about Björk. For instance, her full name is Björk Guðmundsdóttir and she released her first album when she was eleven years old. It was an album on which she played piano and sang a mix of covers and original songs written by her stepfather and herself. She is one of those lucky people who was inducted into the world of music at a young age but managed to maintain her own vision and sense of self. Over the years, she's been nominated for thirteen Grammy Awards, one Academy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards. Despite her mainstream success, she continues to be a completely original artist who sounds like no one else out there, as you will soon discover if you listen to her latest album, Biophilia.

Biophilia, as the title would suggest, is a concept piece about the natural world. Every song is about the individual human being's interdependent relationship with other forms of life and non-life. The album's most impressive aspect is the manner in which the instrumentation creates a distinct mood and visual space for each subject approached by the lyrics. This may sound a bit vague and pretentious, but if you listen to the music, you'll immediately get it.

For example, the song “Moon” is almost entirely composed of gently drifting arpeggios plucked on what sounds like either a harp or ukelele; it's nearly impossible not to see the moonbeams falling across pale marble statues and limpid pools in a silent garden. “Thunderbolt” uses slowly building synth bass notes to describe a gathering storm that breaks somewhere in the middle of the song, as Björk croons, “May I, or should I, or have I too often craved miracles?” The structure of “Crystalline” is all sharp, ringing chimes, hissing bursts of noise, and wild breakbeats; “Listen how they grow / Listen how they glow / I am blinded by the lights in the core of the Earth.” These are just the first three tracks.

Björk's obsession with visual art is all over Biophilia; even to someone who knew nothing else about the project, the songs would seem designed to be interpreted visually. In fact, they were. Each song is being released with its own iPad app that elucidates its subject matter in an educational simulation. Biophilia is essentially a hybrid of poetic art and scientific meditation with an eye toward getting children involved and interested in ecology. This is a fairly brilliant concept. Music has always been one of the most potent educational tools, and introducing elements of aesthetics and philosophy into the learning process may capture the imaginations of kids who might otherwise find the material too dry.

For instance, “Virus” is a love song between a virus and the cell it is trying to invade. It describes the complicated dance that can be both destructive and symbiotically beneficial in the long-term: “As gunpowder needs a war, I feast inside you … my sweet adversary.” The ambition to meld science and art into a broader view of the cosmos is both admirable and successful, due to Björk's unfailing creative drive. She constructed her own instruments for many of the songs, inventing new combinations such as the “gameleste,” a cross-breeding of a celesta and a gamelan that can be heard on “Virus” and “Crystalline.” When the recording process mirrors scientific innovation so closely, the result is very engaging.

Björk has always been an experimenter at heart. From her electro-pop anthems to her freeform jazz explorations, she's a restless spirit who never settles long on one spot. This relentless search for the next frontier runs the risk of alienating those who were really into her last project but get blindsided by the new material; however, Biophilia feels like an album that will please both old and new fans. It's got everything people love about Björk -- ingenious compositions, complex and thoughtful lyrics, and heartfelt performances -- plus, it's on an exciting mission to show us the universe in an unusual and inspiring light.

Standout Tracks: “Crystalline,” “Cosmogony,” “Virus,” “Mutual Core”

For Fans Of: Radiohead, Big Pauper