Icleandic icon Björk has performed two songs on BBC’s Later... With Jools Holland, returning to television — her first true love — for the first time in six years.
Suitably, it was an otherworldly affair. Armed with a septet of flautists, and wearing an eerily intricate face mask that wouldn’t look out of place in Annihilation‘s genome-bending sequencing, Björk transformed the stage into a primordial space of overgrown ferns and exotic plants — essentially, the soundscape of latest album Utopia, released last November.
The singer was on the show to promote an upcoming remix EP of Utopia. But rather than offering a sneak peak, Björk performed an album-faithful rendition of Utopia‘s ‘Courtship’, recreating the song’s erratic bird sounds through the septet’s own chirps.
It was followed by an unexpected choice, ‘The Anchor Song’ from Björk’s 1993 album Debut. The fan-favourite was given an update, as the song’s continually-interjecting saxophones were replaced with the more polite septet, giving the song a new sense of Utopia-era optimism.
In both, Björk’s female flautists are scattered across the stage, an echo of the ‘Utopia’ music video. Which makes sense: the masks featured in the performance were designed by Jesse Kanda, her repeat collaborator across the album’s visuals.
utopia is coming out 24nov. cover by the talented jesse kanda . jupiterian gratitudes to arca for the musicmaking ! hope you like it , björk pic.twitter.com/77G8rnwmM0
— björk (@bjork) October 31, 2017
The two discussed their collaboration method earlier this year in a documentary series for i-D.
Björk is about to embark on a European festival circuit — notably, in a week she’ll headline Spain’s Primavera Sound Festival, performing alongside the Arctic Monkeys, Lorde and Nick Cave.
For now, there’s no news on an Australian tour. Björk was last here in 2015 for Sydney’s Vivid Festival, but only played a singe DJ set at the premier of an exhibition based on Vulnicura, her previous album.
Watch both performances below.
The post Björk Just Played Live On TV For The First Time In Six Years And Yep, It’s Perfect appeared first on Junkee.
| Source: | https://junkee.com/bjork-jools-holland/160112 |
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