The Journey Itself Is Home

An email I received today:

“The weather forecast is not good for this week at Glastonbury. If you have a waterproof jacket and a nice hat then I would bring them along. No high heels either. (Mark B, Jónas and Chris C this does not apply to you unless there is something you want to tell me).”

I’m back in Iceland. Thought I would get three days here but then received email last night asking me if I could come sooner. So I’m flying to London Wednesday morning and will have a rehearsal in the afternoon with Björk, Toumani, Chris, Mark and Damian. The brass girls arrive in London the following day.

I’m kind of glad. The last week or so of the USA leg of the tour I was counting the days - I looked so much forward to go home. Perversely, now I can’t wait to start touring again! And I’m very excited to see Glastonbury. Isn’t King Arthur supposed to be buried there?

I’m still in Paris… This morning the M-key of my laptop broke loose and I’m unable to attach it back. So I’ll have to get my computer fixed before the European leg of the tour starts, which for me is next Thursday. But as my hotel is far from IBM in Paris (I use an IBM Thinkpad) I’m going to wait till Monday. In the meantime, I’ll have to write as few Ms as possible! Or simply skip them…

Some people associated with the tour without Ms in their names:

Shaun Artin
Eester Fly (Easterfly?)
Daian Taylor (congrats on your recent wedding!!!)
Ark Bell
Atthew Barney
Björk Guðundsdóttir

And a few songs:

I Iss You
Cover E
Other Heroic

What else?

I’m reminded of something else. A while ago I bought the fifth season of 24 with Kiefer Sutherland (who actually came to Iceland fairly recently). In the bonus material there is an interview with the guy who composed the music (I have forgotten his name). To explain how the music is used in 24 he plays the scene where Jack Bauer sees his former girlfriend for the first time in a year. He sees her through a window at CTU - a simple enough scene. In the interview the scene is played three times, each time with a different type of music. As a result it means three totally different things.

Now, atonal music of the kind composed by some modern composers is almost never heard in film. When it does, it signifies something particularly outlandish, or perverted. You can hear such music in the scene in 24 when The Evil and Corrupt American President is kissing his wife. His wife doesn’t know his true nature, but YOU know. And the music underlines it.

In my version of the harpsichord accompaniment to Venus As a Boy, there are some dissonant chords. I put them there to create tension and have to admit that I was very pleased with the outcome. Until someone, who was at one of our concerts, wrote in his comment here that “I had messed up” in Venus As a Boy. I listened to the recording, but no, I didn’t mess up. The dissonance just sounded like I had messed up.

After that I began to wonder if maybe I were bringing too outlandish musical language to Björk’s world. Maybe, because of what dissonant music seems to generally MEAN to the population at large, people were reading something totally different to what I intend into Venus As a Boy. I even mentioned this to Björk, asking her if I should change my accompaniment.

Her answer: NO!

She is right, of course. One should always be true to one’s artistic vision.

Today I took my daughter to Disneyland. It was the first for both of us and it was totally amazing!

There were film music cliches everywhere. On one of the rides, maybe the one through Pinocchio’s world, I could hear strings playing a chromatic melody, underlining a creepy atmosphere. In another place, exotic melodies from a harp meant that you were now in another world. And a march in a major key signified a happy ending.

In Simon Frith’s book, Performance Rites (or is it Performing Rites?) he mentions a theory that the meaning of music has actually been created through the medium of the film. One has gotten used to certain kind of music in certain movie scenes, so now one makes an automatic association when one hears a particular type of music.

Of course this is an oversimplification. But there is something to it nonetheless, I think.

Today I went to the Eiffel Tower with my daughter. Naturally we went to the top. Not a place to go if you suffer from vertigo. Which I do!

While riding on the subway I took out my ipod and listened to Volta. I know I’m supposed to be on vacation but I had nothing else to do. Besides, I haven’t listened to Volta since its release. So I was getting kind of curious.

I was curious because I saw on the Björk forum that somebody was upset because Björk didn’t sing exactly the same words on the Jools Holland Show as on the cd. And also because, well, I’m interested in my work! I wanted to find out how much we, i.e. the band and Björk on the tour, differ from the cd.

I think it is important to remember that Björk both composed the music and wrote the lyrics. So she is entitled to change whatever she wants and sing live however she desires. There isn’t any one correct version of Earth Intruders, Wanderlust or any other Volta song.

While listening on the subway I came to the conclusion that the live version of some of the Volta songs are more fun than on the cd, even though I love Volta. They just seem sexier.

Why? I don’t know. Maybe because Björk’s music is organic. After all we also perform old songs on the tour, because they too are alive and keep evolving with all kinds of input from the band members.

On the whole I think Björk’s music just keeps getting better and better - and that’s how it should be.

I read in the newspaper today (Morgunblaðið) that during the recording of the Jools Holland show Paul McCartney borrowed the trumpet of one of the brass girls, Valdí­s Þorkelsdóttir, and played a few tunes on it.

Apart from that, nothing much is happening… I have been resting in Iceland - I have been quite tired as a matter of fact. Today I leave for Paris with my daughter and will stay there for a week.

I hear that Toumani Diabate will play with us in Glastonbury. Consequently I have to learn a new song, Hope. Should be fun, it is one of my favorite Volta songs.

I have just come back to Reykjavik after playing on the Jools Holland Show. We recorded it yesterday, but as it hasn’t been aired yet, I can’t reveal what we played.

My excursion into the history of music went a little further with the monumental event (ha ha) of me shaking hands with Paul McCartney!!! Yes, Sir Paul will be on the show as well as Lady Björk. I haven’t heard his new cd, but the songs he performed yesterday were quite catchy.

I may not be a great fan of the old Beatle, but he has the knack of making popular music out of very simple elements. In that respect he is the Mozart of pop music. And as a human being, he seems quite likeable. Besides, he looks so young!

We recorded the show in two sessions. There was a camera rehearsal in the afternoon, and I understand some of the shots will be used in the final version. In the evening we did the show itself with a live audience, a very LIVELY audience indeed!

My daughter travelled with me and while we were at the BBC building, she was having fun with Björk’s daughter. In the evening they went, with a babysitter, to see Mary Poppins - the musical, not the film. Apparently it was fantastic, with Mary ACTUALLY FLYING OVER THEIR HEADS!

And now I have a few days of rest in Reykjaví­k. On Sunday I’m off to Paris with the little one, but just for a holiday. I’m already looking forward to it!

We have just arrived in London, a bit sleep-deprived, but still OK. In a couple of hours we will have a soundcheck.

On the airport in Iceland I saw a band much loved by the majority of Icelandic folk, Stuðmenn. What they were up to, I don’t know. I also met a friend of Björk and me, Haraldur Jónsson, who is a brilliant sculpturist and poet. In addition I ran into an old friend who was the principal of The Reykjaví­k College of Music for a decade, Halldór Haraldsson. And I could see my tutor from the business university I recently studied in, he was having coffee. I knew many others too. This shows, of course, how small the Icelandic population is…

Apart from meeting people from my past, the trip from Iceland was like tiny journey through rock history. I have already mentioned Stuðmenn. In addition, the brass girls saw the guitarist from Queen at Heathrow, Brian May. I didn’t notice him, but the girls told me he was very hard to miss! And apparently we drove past his namesake’s home, Brian Dickinson of Iron Maiden, on our way to the hotel. I think Iron Maiden once came to Iceland.

Now, is that a good omen for the show tomorrow or what???

Tomorrow I will go to London for the Jools Holland Show. I will travel with Mark Bell and the brass girls, but also with my nine year old daughter!

I will blog about the show very soon, but for now I’m publishing a photo I took from the stage in Vancouver. It was still daylight when we went on stage so the audience can be seen unusually well. When I took the photo Björk was singing Army of Me.