It’s hard to find a contemporary artist who hasn’t been influenced by Björk. Over thirty years of restless, daredevil sonic experimentation and exploration (almost fifty if you count her career with The Sugarcubes, Icelandic postpunk and jazz bands, and her very first self-titled album at age 11) have sustained her position at the forefront of the modern pop and avant-garde landscapes. With each entry in her discography so excitingly different from the rest, deciding on a favourite album is almost tantamount to forging one’s identity; this bundle collects some of her most time tested and blueprint setting work.
Marking the beginning of her enduring solo career, 1993 saw Debut shoot to the top of the charts and place house styled dance pop front and centre in the pop cultural consciousness. With assistance from producer Nellee Hooper, Björk’s “shy beginner” character departed from the angular rock strains of her previous work and navigated tabla and house beats, club toilets ambiance fading into jazz harp by the harbour, deluges of saxophone and dreamy string arrangements. There’s not a single shred of irony or wryness in these combinations. Rather, Björk spills open the toybox of instruments and sounds with complete reverence for them all, setting up a lifetime of sonic adventuring powered by her one of a kind vocals.
Eagerly leaving this initial anchorage and lapping up what the city had to offer, Björk cemented the ecstatic, maximalist hustle and bustle of her new London home on 1995’s Post. Describing it herself as “musically promiscuous”, Post is one of the most eclectic and borderless chapters in Björk's inimitable catalogue. Expanding even further from Debut’s dance pop horn of plenty, Post journeys from the trip hop atmospherics of ‘The Modern Things’ to the barefaced tribal dance charm of ‘I Miss You’, and even makes room for a big band show tune with ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’. Post is the ultimate manifestation of Björk’s genre hopping ethos and engaging variety, which her prolific output has prioritised ever since.
Björk's 2001 album Vespertine remains one of her most personal and fragile albums to date. Her first in the newly digital 21st century, Vespertine is the personification of a breath: warm air condensing into icy particles as it hits the frozen air, Björk’s dedication to love, intimacy, and the wintertide of tiny sounds magnified with her own diligently threaded laptop production. Alongside electronic duo Matmos, producers Matthew Herbert and Opiate, and harpist Zeena Parkins, Björk created a piece of music that carefully weaves together crystaline textures and micro electronics into a sonic bed cradling her innermost thoughts.
These albums are pivotal landmarks in the trajectory of alternative and experimental music’s foremost luminary.
