"It's not meant to be a strife/It's not meant to be a struggle uphill" - Björk, Undo
Björk Wow and Flutter by Mark Pytlik (ECW Press). When I was in college, most of my free time was spent in two places: the student union and the Tower Records directly across the street from the student union. The summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I stayed on campus as an orientation leader and spent even more time in the record store at listening stations devouring new music. The week after a trip back west to see my girlfriend, I put on those listening booth headphones and pressed the button that corresponded to a cd with a grayish-pink cover and a simple enough title: Debut.
My mind exploded. Every song was a revelation. Over a decade later, I still feel that way. I tell you this so that you know with how much reverence I hold Björk's music. That explained, I went into reading this short biography knowing very little about the personal life of one of my absolute favorite artists. That's true about how I deal with most music, though. I don't care to know the personal lives of the artists. In fact, I think in some ways that having that knowledge affects my enjoyment of the music. If I don't know what they were going through when they wrote a given song, I can listen to it through my filters and not be limited by theirs.
But amazon.com wouldn't shut up about this book so here we are. I'm not sure whether or not I like the book. It's very antiseptic. Pytlik goes to great pains to not provide his own perspective on anything and tries really hard to not come off as a fan-boy, succeeding most of the time. His explanations of Iceland and its culture are enjoyable and while I might not necessarily like knowing the background of how songs came together, I do love knowing about the pains and joys of touring and band interaction and all that so the odd rides of The Sugarcubes and Björk's solo tours are worth the time.
The troubles on the set and in the process of making Dancer in the Dark give form and reason to why I find the picture so unsettling and uncomfortable to watch. This is almost entirely second-hand as the singer refuses to talk much at all about the film. The best parts of the book are, of course, when Björk actually does speak for herself. Her view of music in terms of color and texture explain so much about how she creates but, being the person who spends much of his life in front of a screen, I was particularly taken with this quote
It's all secret. There's no oxygen in that world. It operates like your mind. Your thought process is very similar.
She's talking about her laptop and creating music that way for Vespertine (which at times rivals Debut as my favorite of her albums). I like that. I think it's right. When I sit at the computer to write, to create, I work in secret. I add, I subtract, I search for things in the same way I might recall an image, a thought, a memory in my head without anyone being the wiser. It is secret. Even when I publish it here, it's kind of an open secret. The true story might be in the words I leave out.
It lives in a hidden place.
I've never listened to homegirl, not ever, not once, on purpose. You're making me curious, though.
Posted by: danyel | March 06, 2005 at 10:05 PM
Though I haven't listened to Bjork in years, I hear about her from time to time from my friend, Hafrun in Iceland. She's always the talk of the town there. I first heard Bjork when she was Sugarcube. Motorcrash came on while I was dancing on a block, in a club and I loved it. I went out and bought the record ( still wax then ) right after that.
Your interest has inspired me to check out her latest,via BearShare. I always try before I buy these days.
Nice Blog with great links. I'm already reading the BlackFeminism.org Blogger and enjoying the read.
Danke
Posted by: Twisting | March 10, 2005 at 01:20 AM