My departure to South America is approaching. I feel pretty good about that, though I’m slightly nervous to go to such a distant place!
I have been able to relax quite well in the past few days. Today I visited a close friend of mine, Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, who made my favorite Björk video, Where Is The Line. She treated me with a strong cup of coffee and Turkish delight, and showed me her latest video (this time with original music). It looked pretty powerful. Gabríela has a Scorpionic element that resonates easily with my own (her Moon is in Scorpio, close to my Sun).
I don’t quite know how to define that element any better, except with a piece of poetry by the occultist Kenneth Grant:
For there are Thrones underground
And the Monarchs upon them
Reign over Space and Beyond
Invoke Them in Darkness, Outside
the Circles of Time
In Silence, in Sleep, in Conjurations
Of Chaos, the Deep will respond…
I’m often asked why we don’t perform Where Is the Line more often. According to Björk it doesn’t really work outdoors. It needs special acoustics that is most easily obtained indoors. I would love to perform it more often though!
There is a Lovecraftian madness to Where Is the Line that is so capturing. And with the organ instead of a choir, it gets even more so…
Conjurations of Chaos indeed!
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October 18th, 2007 at 12:51 am
Have a great time in South America, I have always wanted to experience that part of the world, so I will be waiting with bated breath for your reports!
I love Where Is The Line, such a great, assertive lyric, and beautiful sonic range.
Funny, my licence plate says “CTHULU” on it, but I never associated this tune with Lovecraft, yet your comment makes perfect sense.
Bless Bless
October 18th, 2007 at 2:03 am
She could easily recreate that song in a more acoustic, melodic version that could be quite interesting. To me that is half the fun of writing a song…..rewriting it in a different format later so that its life is not snuffed out because of a constrained environment.
K
October 18th, 2007 at 2:54 am
I watched the first of your twelve TV programs on classical music in Iceland. I recognize Sigrún Eðvaldsdóttir from Saturday Night Live ten years ago when she performed Bachelorette. There is a sweet moment on SNL when the camera is on Sigrun. She looks at Bjork and smiles while she’s playing. Then the camera goes to Bjork.
October 18th, 2007 at 4:07 am
I’m incredible excited because Björk is finally making a complete tour around South America with several dates in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru. But what is really disappointing is that Venezuela hasn’t been included in the program yet (travelling between our countries is far expensive that it would be doing it in the States or Europe). Any concert of Björk in this country would be an instant sold-out, She’s definitely got a huge amount of fans of all ages. I send my humble request (because I’m just one person in representation of others) for whoever is in charge of consider Venezuela as a date on Björk’s South American tour.
Greetings.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:03 am
What I love in the Where Is The Line video is the collaboration with Erna Omarsdòttir. Do you know her? I had the great pleasure to see her show “IBM 1401″ that focuses, with the music of Johann Johannsson, on the first computer brought to Iceland, an IBM 1401. That was fantastic!
October 18th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
I’m really delighted cause in a few days i’ll be able to see both Gabríela’s work and Erna’s performances-among her. Next month in Bordeaux will stand the contemporary art festival of the town. They invited both of them. I’m quite excited to have a taste of it for real…
frábært…..
October 18th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Yes, I know Erna. When Gabríela opened her exhibition in Venice in 2005 there was a huge party. The highlight was a performance by Erna, a double base player named Borgar Magnússon and yours truly in a bird costume that was originally made for a lady half my size. They had to squeeze me into it, and when I was ten seconds into the performance, the mask slipped and I couldn’t see anything.
After the performance was over, Björk deejayed…
October 18th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Btw, Jónas how do you cope being in the presence of Björk, to not constantly hug her as you undeniably must feel the need?
As she’s looking like this:
http://www.bjork.com/db/images/SubterraneanBlog.jpg
October 18th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Jen goes digital, do you have a video of this SNL performance? It sounds beautiful!
October 18th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFL6el3xQEs
October 18th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Marky Mark Bell is there, too!
October 18th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
He’s in the background clogging.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Just can’t wait to see everybody here in Sao Paulo, Brazil! Hope you like Brazil and the concerts here. Ten days left, and counting!
November 28th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Oh you should definitely do Where Is The Line live more often. I think the older version from her last tour would work better outdoors, withy the huge techno hip-hop beat, that would sound AWESOME with brass. Suggest it to Bjork, you never know? I was always sad I missed that tour cos to witness that early version of WITL would have been immense, it would go really well inbetween Hyper-Ballad and Pluto in the setlist
Listen to me, it isn;t my tour haha, but just a suggestion (to be played at hammesmith on the 14th of april… hint hint)