björk: voltaic.

Björk delivers a live show that, just like her entire career, is fearless, insane, unbelievable, transformative, undeniably unique, and completely fucking unreal. I was lucky enough to see her Volta tour at Virgin Festival Toronto and it was easily one of the best nights of my life. Beyond the headresses, towers of flames, and tunnels of lasers tracing patterns into the surrounding trees, what I remember most about it is her unflinching, uncompromising, otherworldly voice soaring out above it all.

A few days ago, Björk released the “Voltaic” box set (in 5 different versions, combining DVD, CD, LP, and Mp3), documenting her incredible 2-year long Volta tour. The trailer took me back instantly to the night I saw it and gives me chills. It’s like the best non-acid acid flashback ever.

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Plus, as always, the artwork for the set is beautifully designed:

björk: the dull flame of desire.

Each day that Björk releases a new video is like Christmas. She’s firmly established herself on the cutting edge of just how artistic and experimental music vids can really be. I loves me some Björk.

In the new video for “The Dull Flame Of Desire”, featuring Antony Hegarty, the three runners-up from the online competition to create a vid for “Innocence” were each given a third of the song to direct. Christoph Jantos, Masahiro Mogari and Marçal Cuberta Junca all balanced the task of interpreting their own vision while still giving the video a consistency beautifully. I especially like the third section, where Björk’s and Hegarty’s faces morph into each other following the sway of the song.

It’s not her most amazing video ever, but just like sex and pizza, even “just good” Björk is still better than most.

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björk + encyclopedia pictura: “wanderlust”.

Regardless of your personal opinion of Björk (she usually fits pretty snugly into the “love her or hate her” category) she easily produces the most artistic, ground-breaking, and visually stunning music videos in her industry. She sets the bar for imagination, hands down. Buzz has been building around her latest vid, “Wanderlust”, since production stills made it on the web a couple months ago.

Now the wait is over. Björk came out in person for the first screening at Deitch Studios in Long Island City on March 13. The video was (finally) released for the rest of us today on Yahoo. Directed by duo Encyclopedia Pictura, this little wonder was shot in 3D with a mix of live action, puppets, scale models, and computer generated animation. The result is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Like it or not, whether you think she’s bat shit crazy or not, Björk is a consummate artist. And you gotta give her respect for that.

The low quality YouTube version of the video simply doesn’t do it justice, and those links are being killed now anyway. Luckily, I got an email from Isaiah at Encyclopedia Pictura with this high-res link. It is beautiful. Check out “Wanderlust” it all it’s glory here.

If you want to see just how one goes about making a plastersine yak, then there’s also a totally interesting behind the scenes spot as well:

declare independence: björk + michel gondry

Most people think Björk is bat shit crazy. I’m not here to either dispute or confirm that. Personally, I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for her ever since I fell in love with Post. Anyone who tries to claim they weren’t even a little moved by the soul-wrenching performance she surprised everyone with in Dancer In The Dark is just being an asshole.

Like her or hate her, she’s undeniably on the forefront of all things artistic: beats, live performance, digital instrumentation (check out The Reactable that she blew people’s minds with on her 2007 tour), and definitely videos. Her visual interpretations of her songs are just as undeniably unique and uncompromising as the music itself. This is in no small part to her long artistic mind-melding with French director Michel Gondry. Which would help explain why a lot of her videos are like 4-minute dream sequences that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind left on the cutting room floor.

This much-heralded collab continues with the latest single from Volta. I like this video, but I don’t love it. But, as with all things Björk, it’s most definitely worth talking about: