homogenic

Björk Guðmundsdóttir dodged death and found a creative rebirth with the eclectic electronica of this lush catharsis. The songs of 'Homogenic' began in the wake of the dissolution of relationships with her collaborators Tricky and Goldie. Marathon songwriting sessions took place with engineer Markus Dravs at Björk's home in London; but, after a mailbomb from an obsessed and suicidal fan was found, she went to Spain to escape the media circus.  

She remembers:  "I didn't know how I was going to feel. But it's like Björk leaves Iceland-it's like a Tin Tin book-and goes to these other countries. Björk in America, Björk in Congo. I knew I was going to go on a mission, which was very hard for me 'cause I'm a very family-oriented person and though people may think I'm raving mad - and I probably am - I've always had basic, little village upbringing. It was scary to leave all that. I was on a four-year mission, I became an action junkie. If something didn't happen for two hours I'd make a call, cut a deal, it was really sick. I wanted action, to have this feeling like I'm risking everything or I'm bored.  Then last September everything exploded. My unconscious had asked for that. A lot of things ended in my life. I went to Spain in the same week and crashed. I'd been holding my breath in London for four years. Emotionally, this album is about hitting rock bottom and earning your way up. So it's the darkest album I've done emotionally, but it's got a lot of hope. 'Okay, I'm on the bottom but I'm fucking going there.' It's the darkest, but the bravest."

The entire album was recorded at El Cortijo Studios in Málaga, Spain with Howie B on programming, production, and mixing; Mark Bell on programming, production, drum programming, and crew; Richard Brown on programming; Deodato on arrangments, orchestration, and transcription; Marius de Vries on programming; Markus Dravs on programming, production, engineering, and drum programming;  Danny Joe Brown Band as programming and mixing assistant; Kirsten Cowie as mixing assistant and assistant; and Björk as arranger and producer. Eumir Deodato conducted the Icelandic String Octet.  

Björk says:  "I call this album 'Homogenic', a word that not exist. But for me it means that this albums has only one flavour, in contrast to 'Debut' and 'Post', that were collections of diverse songs that I wrote for a long time. During a winter I heard lots of music from indian movies. Then, for two years, I heard lot of Indian, Japanese and Peruvian saxophones, only if they were out of tune. And in this way I was collecting material. But before this album I decided to stop and make an album that was the reflexion of what I am right now. This is something that scares, because there is nothing in back were we can hide. This album is more spontaneous, 'straight on fire'."

The sound of the strings produces a sweeping emotionality that combines with sythesized beats.  Björk embraces the label of electronica:  "You know, electricity and electronics should be electronic, they shouldn't try to be like Japanese flute or violin. They should be proud of what they are. Almost like sincere and honest techno noises, 'cause often people use them as cold and nasty. I think technology is very warm and sentimental, as well. It can be very mushy and emotional. I wanted Homogenic to reflect where I'm from, what I'm about. I wanted the beats to be almost distorted; imagine if there was Icelandic techno. Iceland is one of the youngest countries geographically, it's still in the making. So the sounds would be still in the making...Electricity is not just a phenomenon of the 20th Century. Its been around before us, it's like thunder and lightning. There is electricity inside us. With acupuncture you're putting a needle on the electrical current that travels in your nerves. Or you walk on a nylon carpet and it pops when you touch the wall. It's just in this century that they made that into audio. Now you can hear it. It's part of our lives.  People always think the future is alien and cold. Just before Noah's flood they all said, 'The future is doomed, we're all doomed.' It's basically fear of change. People saying 'techno is cold' is rubbish. Since when do you expect the instruments you work with to deliver soul? You do music with computers and get a cold tune, that's because nobody put soul into it. You don't look at a guitar and say, 'Go on then, do a soulful tune'. You have to put soul into it yourself." 

'Homogenic' went to twenty-eight in the US, twenty in Canada, four in the UK, three in Norway, and two in France.  





'Homogenic'
full album:


https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZq-NnXnRJknoJTXWqV3tj20SZaRxN0C8


00:00  Hunter 
04:15  Jóga  
09:21  Unravel
12:40  Bachelorette
17:57  All Neon Like
23:49  5 Years
28:17  Immature
31:24  Alarm Call
35:43  Pluto
39:09  All Is Full of Love






'Bachelorette'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJnhaXwK86M





'Alarm Call'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCtzQ6KbWWY





'Joga'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BSMcVRgloY






'All is Full of Love'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxBO28j3vug






'Hunter'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8A9e4Lp0N0





Björk recalls:  "I recorded 'So Broken' that infamous week for me, the week of the bomb. The only way for me to write a song about it was just to take the piss. I wrote it in my house hitting the table singing, 'I'm so broken, ole!' I was going to have the sound of washing dishes and three kids screaming; it would be a soap opera. Then I went to the studio in Spain and met the flamenco guitarist who plays on the track and stayed there for six months recording...It was really, really scary. At that time I'd been traveling for four years and I was actually in Florida when he shot himself. Just three blocks away from him and he didn't know. It was a night where it was thundering and lightning. So he sends the bomb to England and I fly over to London while the bomb is on its way. I'm coming home and it really fucked up my whole life and the idea of what my home is. Forty media people were hanging outside my house with a lens on my toilet seat. I didn't feel very welcome at my own home. Of course, I cried for the man and I was very upset over his death. I couldn't sleep ...for him. But for me it destroyed my home. I had to rediscover everything. Me and my son, Sindri, talked a lot about it. Now home is when we meet, wherever we are. Home is where the heart is."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naEyCnXOpJA