Björk

welcome to my björk guðmundsdóttir shrine. i've been actively listening to her since may 15th 2023.
this page and all subcontents within serve as a love letter to her wonderful artistry, as well as the artist herself.

more likely than not forever a work in progress the more i come to properly parse and digest all of her works, as my tastes are ever-changing and evolving.

feel free to click on the album titles above to change the theme as per your personal preferences — the default theme is based after utopia as it is my favorite album.

beautiful headers from bjork.fr, tooltips sourced from dynamic drive, music player from adilene.net.

björk was born on the 21st of november 1965 in reykjavík, iceland. she was raised by her mother, hildur rúna hauksdóttir, after a divorce from her father, guðmundur gunnarsson, in 1968 — the marriage falling apart due to expectations on hildur to be a housewife, something she was personally against. her mother was an activist, after all, with a rebellious spirit to accompany. as such, after the separation, björk and her mother moved to a hippie commune, with a stream of musicians and artists commonly gathering in the family home to play music, drink, and share their stories.

björk's musical inclinations started early, as she began attending barnamúsíkskóli reykjavíkur (now known as tónmenntaskóli reykjavík) at the age of five, graduating in 1980 at the age of fourteen. it is there that she learned to play both the piano and the flute. after a school recital wherein björk sang tina charles's i love to love, a recording of it was sent by one of her teachers to rúv radio station. the record was broadcast nationally, and she was approached by a representative of the fálkinn record label with an offer of a recording contract.

she was given the chance to record an album, and, after spending august and september of 1977 recording it, björk was released in december 1977. the songs on the album were a mixture of covers translated into icelandic and songs written specifically for the album. the album was recorded at hljóðriti studios in reykjavík, and the cover was designed by her mother. with the money she earned from the album, björk bought herself a piano, and began to compose more of her own songs. though the album charted in iceland, the young artist wasn't quite prepared for celebrity status, as the idolization from friends at school eager for her attention caused her to feel dejected. socially, she then on found herself surrounded by musicians three times her age, many of whom encouraged her to put out a second album.

the late seventies and early eighties marked when punk music hit iceland. in accordance, at the age of thirteen, björk performed as the drummer in a militant hardcore-feminist riot-grrrl-combo called spit and snot, which wrote songs about how much they hated men. during this time, she sported shaved eyebrows and orange hair. though they quickly disbanded due to so-called attitude problems, björk said the group believed that “boys are crap [and] they're only good for shagging”. she also described the band as “girls having fun, and f**k that sitting-around-and-being-cute”. another band björk formed was exodus, remembered as a naïve blend of new wave and pop. two years later, she emerged as the lead singer in tappi tikarrass, a punk-pop band. it was in that same year that björk got her tattoo, a vegvísir.

björk was sixteen when she fell in love with Þór eldon, stating how it was love at first sight and how she moved into his house the same evening that they met. she was eventually enlisted as a lead vocalist in icelandic supergroup kukl. the band's ethos questioned iceland's appropriated elements of the country's pagan past to shore up its own belief systems. kukl managed to stir up its own controvery besides that, however, such as the april 1986 television broadcast of the band performing. björk, dressed in only a bra and skirt, was seven months pregnant, with eyebrows shaven yet armpits unshaven. an elderly woman that was watching allegedly suffered a heart attack, blaming the ugliness of björk's pregnant belly, and even went on to sue her. björk gave birth two months later, on june 8th 1986, to her son sindri eldon Þórsson. she and Þór eldon were also wed in 1986, though she described it to be a marriage more of convenience than anything else — it took 10 minutes, and then they could get money from the state for Þór to get contact lenses.

when kukl went their separate ways, one of her former bandmates, einar örn, wanted to start a new band. he gathered björk, Þór eldon, and some former kukl members, and the sugarcubes were born. much more deliberately oriented towards pop music than björk's previous stints with punk, jazz, new wave, and other genres, the group achieved great success. the band signed to one little indian (now one little independent records) in the united kingdom, and elektra records in the united states, and released their debut album, life's too good, in april 1988. their second record, here today, tomorrow next week!, was released in september 1989, and many of the reviews viewed it as a weaker piece of work than the preceding album. stick around for joy, the sugarcubes's third and final album, was released in february 1992. it received noticably better reviews than their second album, and it even spawned their first big hit, with hit. the sugarcubes disbanded in december 1992.

so, what was next for björk except embarking on an epic solo career? she moved to london to pursue said solo career, and released debut in june 1993. it was named debut to signify the start of something new. the album included collaborations with nellee hooper, as well as david arnold for play dead, which was included on re-issues of debut. debut was heavily themed around love, from "flesh-and-blood" passion for another person, to the love of life itself. the album had five singles, being: human behavior, venus as a boy, play dead, big time sensuality, and violently happy. though all charted in the united kingdom, only human behavior, big time sensuality, and violently happy charted in the united states. debut is widely regarded as one of the best albums of 1993, as well as the 90s in general. björk won best newcomer and best international female at the 1994 brit awards thanks to this release. in sonic symbolism, debut is described as the following: shy, beginner, humility, virgin, beige, silver, mohair, the messenger.

work started on her next studio album, post, in late 1994. contrary to debut's gentler house music direction, post had much more of an edge, touching on musical styles like industrial and experimental. björk furthermore recognized post as more aggressive than debut, and identified independence, strength, and instinct as its lyrical themes. the title post refers to two things: one being how all songs were written post her move to england, and two being a reference to how she wished to communicate with her friends and family back in iceland, adding the meaning of mail. this is further showcased in the album cover, wherein she is depicted wearing a jacket inspired by royal mail envelopes. many controversies surrounded post, its release, and the span of time thereafter. some of the controveries include the removal of the army of me music video from mtv's playlist — which depicted her bombing an art museum, sadly overlapping with the oklahoma city bombing — as well as being sued by former collaborator simon fisher. additionally, the consistent media attention as well as excess of tour dates began to affect björk. one such example is the infamous welcome to bangkok incident. while on tour in february 1996, björk arrived at bangkok international airport with sindri. reporter julie kaufman, who had allegedly been bothering the two for days prior, approached them and said “welcome to bangkok!” this provoked björk to charge at kaufman and wrestle her to the ground. kaufman declined to press chargers. much of björk's persona during the post era left her viewed by the media as having a sort of pixie-like character. in sonic symbolism, post is described as the following: urban, greedy, promiscuity, euphoric, absorb, orange, pink, urban.

working on new songs provided some much-needed therapy after all the events that had transpired, including both all of the controversies surrounding post's release as well as the trauma from lópez. from the very start of homogenic's production, there was a conceptual focus on the geography of iceland. björk knew very early on that homogenic would be a simple record compared to that of her previous two works, and adopted homogeneous as its working title, which was eventually changed to homogenic. for the creation of homogenic, björk also had a very close working relationship with post's engineer markus dravs. she allowed him an incredible amount of creative license, but refused to change on her basic concepts for the album. there were two primary elements: beats and strings. after the lópez incident, and the circus of media that begun to camp out on her lawn, quickly björk came to realize that she couldn't keep writing in london. her debut and post tour drummer trevor morais owned a studio in spain, which he offered to her for temporary respite. she only planned to stay in spain long enough to record the guitar portions of so broken, but was quickly enamored with her surroundings. after only a few days there, she decided to record all of homogenic in spain, barring her continued tradition of visiting reykjavík for christmas. in visting her native iceland that year, björk came to realize that she was returning to her roots with homogenic, compared to the comparatively more extroverted lifetyles and albums that debut and post encompassed. she returned to spain in january, homogenic released on september 20 1997, with a majority of the songs portraying lyrics about love and failed relationships. in sonic symbolism, homogenic is described as the following: warrior, active, volcanic beats, confrontational, icelandic octet, beats, cosmopolitan/icelandic contrast, green, patriotic.

in 1999, björk was asked to write and produce the musical score for lars von trier's dancer in the dark. he eventually asked her to consider playing the lead role — claiming the only true way to capture the character of selma was to have the composer play her. björk eventually accepted. there were multiple critical guidelines that she insisted upon to von trier, such as her need to have complete control over all of the film's musical elements. however, there is contention as to if such an agreement was ever on paper or merely a verbal one. while still living in reykjavík, björk attended tap dancing lessons three times a week, and began the songwriting process. working in this manner allowed her to get a grasp on selma's character even six months before they began filming. with assistance of mark bell, guy sigsworth, valgeir sigurdsson, and sjon sigurdsson, selmasongs began to take shape. alongside the seven songs that composed the album, everyone's hard work also yielded a new track: amphibian. this new track foreshadowed the next direction for björk's music — a contrast of celebrated fragility compared to that of homogenic's brazen strength. however, despite the incredible work put out, the relationship between von trier and björk was very fraught. björk once stated online, "[lars von trier] needs a female to provide his work soul. and he envies them and hates them for it. so he has to destroy them during the filming. and hide the evidence." she furthermore accused von trier of sexual harassment (though omitted his name, referring to him only as 'a danish director') on facebook during the height of the #metoo movement. the shoot was overall so tiring, both physically and emotionally, that björk vowed to never act again.

in the wake of all the tension accumulated whilst working on dancer in the dark was the tireless effort funneled into björk's fourth solo album, with a working title of domestika. in addition to the release of tension was also the release of an intense amount of love forged with matthew barney. having grown bored of fantastical big beats, björk instead found herself gravitating towards making a record for a more domestic sort of mood. this also marks the usage of her laptop as a compositional tool, fine-tuning molecular clicks from tinny speakers. there was also a focus on micro-beats and whispering vocals due to the ever-increasing rise of technology, as an artistic vision of how those noises would translate coming from poorer, cheaper speakers. she only used acoustic instruments that maintained a good sound even after being downloaded: the harp, the music box, celesta, and clavichord. the changing shape of the album also included a new name, shifting from domestika to vespertine. during vespertine's production, björk opted to move from iceland again, this time into barney's manhattan apartment. she left behind sindri, who opted to stay back with his father. after the album's tour, björk fulfilled a very select few of promotional engagements before returning to barney in manhattan. a month later, she was pregnant with her second child, fathered by barney. isadora was born on october 3 2002, while björk and barney were vacationing in paris. soon after the birth, the couple returned to manhattan to continue building their life together. in sonic symbolism, vespertine is described as the following: winter world, paradise, frozen, celestial, whispered vocals, microbeats, loyal, swans, harps, music boxes, laptops, orchestra, glockenspiels, salvation, choir.

work on her fifth studio album, known as the lake album during early production, was majorly inspired by björk's yearning to step away from both the worlds of instruments and the worlds of electronics, claiming to have overdosed on them. furthermore, she wanted to see what could be accomplished with the entire emotional range of the human voice. one voice, a chorus, trained voices: not only melodies so much as every noise that a human being's throat could make. august 2004 marked the release of medúlla. it included the vocal skills of tanya tagaq, rahzel, dokaka, mike patton, robert wyatt, and several choirs. many aspects of medúlla were arranged so that björk could spend as much time with isadora as possible: no tours or bit concerts. she was also inspired by paganism, and the overall idea of returning to a world that is entirely human. a world without tools, without religion, without nationality. even further, björk also considered medúlla to be her most political album at the time of its construction. it countered the racism and patriotism in the wake of the september 11 terrorist attacks, and björk viewed the album as anti-patriotic in the sense that it was against any sort of country, calling more for the unity of the human race. the same month that the album released, björk performed oceania at the opening ceremony of the 2004 summer olympics in athens. in sonic symbolism, medúlla is described as the following: primordial, motherhood, black braided hair, breastfeeding, passive, pre-civilisation, goth, folk, archeology, boens, family around campfire.

in 2005, björk collaborated with barney on the film drawing restraint 9, which was a dialogueless exploration of japanese culture. both her and barney appear in the film, as western guests on a factory whaling vessel that ultimately transform into whales. she also created the film's soundtrack, titled the music from matthew barney's drawing restraint 9, or drawing restraint 9 for short, with credits as arranger, producer, programmer, keyboards, harp, and beat programming. drawing restraint 9 is not typically included when fans speak of her body of work, perhaps owing to her vocals only appearing on three tracks: bath, storm, and cetacea. also in 2005, björk released army of me: remixes and covers, which featured a whopping seventeen remixes of army of me. it was organized in response to the 2004 indian ocean earthquake and tsunami, and björk put out a call on her website, reaching thousands of musician worldwide. she asked for a remix of army of me, stating that the proceeds would go to the united nations children's fund and emergency work with children all around the world. as of january 2006, the album raised £250,000 to help unicef's work.

due to the serious nature of her past two or three works, björk approached her next studio album with a new direction and objective in mind: get silly. she wanted to create something fun, something that was up and full-bodied. it was from this that volta was born, released on may 1 2007. volta incorporated the efforts of many collaborators, taking aspects from forms of music such as brass music, chinese folk music, percussive tribal music, electro, malian folk music, ambient, and industrial music. she used brass instrumentation for almost every song on the album, most of which was courtesy of an all-female icelandic brass ensemble. though volta harbored favorable critical reception on release, the reception was not as glowing when compared to her previous albums. however, it did manage to reach top 10 on the us billboard 200, as it peaked at number nine. in sonic symbolism, volta is described as the following: justice, fire, anthropology, wanderlust, activist, brass, boats, feminist, red, neon green, electric, blue, flags, trumpets, tribal beats, bombastic.

björk's seventh studio album, biophilia, was composed as a concept album during the 2008—2011 icelandic financial crisis, and aimed to explore the links between nature, music, and technology. biophilia was also a multimedia project, which was released alongside of series of apps and a series of educational workshops. overall, the album grew from björk's interest in nature and environmentalism. biophilia was partly composed on an ipad, and new musical instruments were developed specifically for the album, such as the gameleste, which was a mixture between a gamelan and a celesta, programmed to be played remotely by a tablet computer. biophilia was björk's last collaboration with mark bell before he sadly passed away from medical surgery complications in october 2014. the biophilia app contains a series of 10 separate apps, one for each song on the album. each individual app contains options to play the song, to access the score, use it as a karaoke machine, or use it as sheet music. the biophilia app was the first downloadable app in the museum of modern art's permanent collection. in sonic symbolism, biophilia is described as the following: equilibrium, synchronising opposites, electric blue, copper, pedagogic, cosmic, atom, element table, no human scale, galaxies, nasa, not narrative, pacifist, nature/technology, solutions, kofi annan.

after the success of biophilia, björk expressed a desire to use similar instruments for her next project. björk also approached producer arca after her manager sent her arca's mixtape, and the two worked together on the production of her next album, vulnicura. on january 18 2015, only a few days after the public announcement and over two months ahead of its scheduled release, a full version of the album leaked online. in attempts of salvaging potential losses in sales, the album was released worldwide on january 20 2015. vulnicura means "cure for wounds" (a combination of vulnus + curus in latin), and the album themed heavily around björk's breakup with barney. vulnicura was renowned for having much more emotionally raw and intimate lyrics compared to the more abstract lyrics of her previous works. additionally, despite lacking singles to promote the album, a series of innovative music videos were created, which culminated in the 360-degree virtual realtiy exhibit björk digital. vulnicura received widespread acclaim from critics, with many lauding it as her best output in a decade, compared to the comparably lukewarm reception of volta and biophilia. in sonic symbolism, vulnicura is described as the following: confessional, victimhood, lieder-songs, moss tundra, greek tragedy update, man-woman-conflict, chamber orchestra, lavender wax, the ritual of mourning, sewing wound, recovery narrative, heartbreak, shock, neon, yellow, lava.

björk's next musical venture saw collaboration from ara from the start, compared to their previous collaboration, wherein arca joined the team after the songs and string arrangements were written. air was a conscious stylistic choice for the album, featuring the airy musical qualities of the flute and harp. while vulnicura was about a personal loss, utopia was about rediscovering love. a transcendental love, a love that's even greater. utopia released on november 24 2017. she described the writing of utopia to paradise, a direct opposition to the divorce-like hell of vulnicura, and it was further described as being "a skybound haven after her traumatic divorce". the album is overall an exploration of utopia, an imaginary community possessing near-perfect qualities for its members. hypothetical utopias focus on equality in categories such as economics, government, and justice, and the writing process for utopia coincided with björk's own personal, political, and environmental concerns (while she is hesitant to be seen as an overtly political figure, björk is supportive of many liberation movements, including independence for kosovo and the international tibet independence movement). björk also described utopia as "a proposal of how society can live with nature and technology in the most optimistic way possible". utopia was another album met with widespread critical acclaim, being consistently lauded as something beautiful and avant-garde. in sonic symbolism, utopia is described as the following: sci-fi island in the clouds, plant-human-bird mutant, post-apocalyptic optimism, air, flute-like synths, synth-like flutes, pacifist, #metoo, matriarchal, peach, mint, idealistic, women and children surviving violence, manifesto to the future, sensuality.

hildur rúna passed away in late 2018, and both her passing and the covid-19 pandemic had profound impacts on björk's next and most recent musical project as of writing this, fossora. fossora was released on september 30 2022, and centered around the themes of isolation, loss, and grief. in the album's liner notes, the song sorrowful soil is subtitled "a eulogy for hildur rúna", while ancestress is subtitled "an epitaph for hildur rúna". fossora comes from the ungrammatical feminine version of the latin word for digger. the album also featured themes of survival, death, and ecological medidation, sometimes framed as her mushroom album. the fungus metaphor that envelops the album extends to how mushrooms are underground, but not stagnant in the way tree roots are. arca was intended to collaborate on fossora just as they had on vulnicura and utopia, but björk was unable to visit them in barcelona nor welcome them at her home due to the pandemic. though there is no sonic symbolism episode for fossora, some descriptors of the album are: dark green, dark red, grief, family, mushroom, digging, gabber, bass clarinet, ground.

information mainly courtesy of bjork.fr, the björk wikipedia page and mark pytlik's björk: wow and flutter.

this section focuses only on björk's solo career.