I have been asked what instrument I play on the tour.
One is an electronic harpsichord that Björk owns. It has two two manuals and is a sampled instrument. It is of an unusually high quality. It has four types of church organ sounds, three harpsichord sounds, a celeste sound and some others that we don’t use. I also play an electric piano.
On the SNL show I used the celeste, but played an octave lower than in the original version of the song. In that way it sounded a bit like a toy piano. Tonight I’ll play the same part on the electric piano, but will use a kind of a marimba sound that the other instrument doesn’t have. I prefer it to the celeste, it is more earthy. We’ll see how it works.
Entries (RSS)
April 27th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
I noticed that the celeste seemed to be in a lower register. I liked it, but I remember first thinking that it sounded odd.
Also, It was really interesting to see Earth Intruders on sheet music. It looks really fun to play!
April 27th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I did the bass solos in the Messiah once, and I believe the keyboardist used that same electronic harpsichord. It even did the residual plectrum sound on releasing the keys. So glad those things are around. Keeping a real harpsichord in tune for more than an hour of playing is pretty impossible.
I wonder if you might find a medium ground between the celeste and marimba (which seems like it might be too hollow or blunt for those passages. Maybe non-sustained vibraphone setting would lend a metallic sound without being bell-like. It’d be even sweeter if you could hook it into a really, really, really minimal distortion pedal to give it that slightly overloaded sound Konono get on their electric likembe.
April 27th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
i was wondering, if you guys will play any songs from previous albums during your NYC shows, or is it all songs from Volta
either way, i look forward to seeing the performance! it is my early birthday treat. love love love, and counting days…
April 27th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Hey Jonas! I’m thinking about the song “Unravel”. In the album Homogenic we can hear a church organ (I think that’s an organ… ). Well, I would love to see that taking a time of it own in a concert!. Yeah!
Keep the good work!!!
April 27th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
I don’t know yet what songs we will perform in NY. But I’m sure it will be a mixture of old and new. It is important to keep in mind that the old songs, at least many of them, will be presented in new versions on this tour. Some arrangements have never been performed in public before.
April 28th, 2007 at 12:38 am
Jonas,
Firstly, congratulations. This is excellent, i mean the blog, the dedication to share and reveal. I, as a musician, regard this operation as revolutionary.
You are sharing and therefore demystifying the glamour that surrounds the music for so long.. which in the end people love to mimick and hide behind the facade. Thanks for putting the good faith up front.
Jonas when are you coming back to New York? I would like to invite you to the 6th floor of that building in manhattan where the map of the universe is being made! Plus meeting the analog wizard Jeff Blenkinsopp would interest you as a man of keys.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:08 am
“the old songs, at least many of them, will be presented in new versions”
And “Where Is the Line?” just has to be part of those, no? Please tell me it is so!! (And if not just stay silent to preserve my fantasies…)
April 28th, 2007 at 3:25 am
Hello Jónas,
I am enjoying your blog. Thank you for taking your time to write it! Do you have a digital camera with you on the tour? It would be great to see some pictures from the tour, such as things you saw on your walk when you got lost. If not, the writing is still great!
April 28th, 2007 at 4:49 am
i am so pleased i get to watch the performance tonight (alas, online), and i think the marimba sound will fit in very nicely. are the lasers going to be used throughout the tour? i’m really looking forward to seeing you all at sasquatch! best of luck!!
April 28th, 2007 at 8:33 am
first of all i want to thank you Jonas, for sharing your experience with us. It is great to read all this process
And i want to say how i am jealous of the people that have the opportunity to see the concerts. i live in istanbul, turkey. bjork was only once in istanbul, and it was ten years ago!!! i want to ask you, is there any plan of a gig in istanbul, turkey? or should i give up to hope of a gig in istanbul?
good luck!
April 28th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Very happy to see Vökuró on the setlist. Please keep it up there at least until you have played in Amsterdam in a few months.
It’s like my ‘funeral-song’ but also very beautiful to experience in all other occasions of course!
Do you have any influence on the setlist? Probably all Bjork’s decision I guess.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Where is the Line is one of my favorite songs and it is on the agenda. I just don’t on what shows we will perform it.