Alternative
Björk releases “Björk Orkestral” on 27 November, the concert she played with the Hamrahlíð Choir on 24 October 2021 at the Harpa hall in Reykjavík. It comes out on LP, CD, Blu-ray and DVD on One Little Independent, and it is the first time it has had a physical edition.
The choir is conducted by Þorgerður Ingólfsdóttir, who founded it and who has worked with her for years. That night’s programme drew mostly on “Medúlla”, the 2004 album made almost entirely from voices. Orkestral was a run of four concerts and more than a hundred Icelandic musicians passed through it.
“I am so happy and proud of this concert. We all put enormous love, energy and time into it,” Björk says. “I have learned slowly through the years about the juxtaposition of voices and the electronic. For me it is a philosophical matter, how nature and technology can coexist amicably. I got an opportunity to learn how to get this balance just right through extensive rehearsals in the space we got in covid. It is often easier for me to do this on the recordings, but here we did it physically live.”
Text by Marçal Bonastre