Concert of Icelandic singer Björk in Madrid. Review

Icelandic singer Björk, after a two-year break during which she performed her greatest hits in concert with an orchestra, returned to the Cornucopia program, entirely dedicated to the theme of merging music with nature. The new leg of the Cornucopia tour kicked off in early September. All the subtleties of the show at the Madrid Sports Palace WiZink Center appreciated Igor Gavrilov.

Bjork’s fans, who have been on the Bjork Orkestral tour since the end of the pandemic, received a set of hits from different years, including several cornerstones of her catalog – “I’ve Seen It All” from Lars von Trier’s film “Dancer in the Dark”, hysterical and absolutely Russian in melodic “Bachelorette” plus a few more songs from the blockbuster “Homogenic” album, as well as songs from the magic record “Post” (1995) and – in homeopathic doses – later and more complex material. The Russians also had a chance to hear all this luxury. Björk’s concert with the orchestra was scheduled for June 2022, but circumstances beyond Björk’s control intervened. In her social networks, it was written: “The concert in Moscow is canceled in the light of the circumstances.”

The Bjork Orkestral program was ended at the Coachella festival this spring, and soon Bjork restarted the Cornucopia tour. At the start of the tour, it became clear that this would be a test for loyal fans. 11 of the 20 songs of the new program are from Utopia (2017) and four from Fossora (2022). At the beginning of work on the Fossora album, Björk decided that clarinets and flutes would become the basis for the arrangements for the songs. As a result, only four of the 13 songs on the album are completely resolved in this vein. However, in the concert program, six flutists-clarinetists, who also sing and dance, performed almost all the accompaniment, including songs from Björk’s classical catalogue. A harp was also played on stage, and two men, Manu Delago and Bergur Thorisson, were in charge of percussion and programming respectively. Despite their presence, there was almost no beat in the arrangements. For Björk, the sound of crystal bowls and flowing water is more important in this program, which complement the pre-recorded bird voices and other green noise.

“Fossora” is an album entirely dedicated to the sounds of Björk’s native island and, in general, to worlds independent of man. Programming the strings at a table in a cafe near her home, Björk thought about how to convey the greatness of Iceland through music, and at the same time studied mushrooms. It was in the mushrooms that the themes of “death, survival and ecological meditation” united for her. The mushroom as an image formed the basis of the visual accompaniment of the show.

The projection was carried out both on the backdrop and on the side screens, and on the translucent curtain of the proscenium. Björk, dressed at the beginning of the show in black and red, that is, in the colors of flamenco, found herself inside a huge mycelium. This does not mean that all the videos had mushrooms. However, all images, whether they were flowers or cells of living matter, were in constant development. No wonder Björk’s concert shows have long been evaluated by critics in the categories of contemporary art. Objects and textures branched here, obeying both the biological algorithm and chance. Either music sought to merge with nature, or it flowed from nature.

The sounds made by the “elves” with wind instruments accompanying the singer on stage also grew and branched naturally, as if they had never been written down in notes or zeros and ones. Perhaps this was the main feeling of the new program. Even the song “Venus as a Boy” from Björk’s classic album “Debut” (1993) was born right here on stage, without a rhythm section, in the process of the interaction of a voice and a single flute. It was not easy to recognize her in such a decision.

But far more important than all associations with contemporary art is Björk’s own voice, which at 57 years old carries all the dramatic and dramatic load of songs. Björk’s voice remains a phenomenon without equal. Björk’s voice is not only the air vibrations that the vocal cords create, it is the breath itself. “Inhale-exhale” is a separate color in her vocal palette. The first songs of the program are so vocally eloquent that they bring literally to tears. Even those who didn’t have time for “Utopia” and “Fossora”. Even men. Björk performs several songs of the program in a special vocal booth, set as if at a distance from the main stage, reminiscent of a hobbit’s house, only lime-white. Björk goes there to be alone with his voice, lets only one or two musicians go there. This secluded abode is at the same time associated with a booth for recording vocals, which are in any studio. Cornucopia is, it turns out, also a story about the relationship between the singer and her voice.

Before the final songs “Future Forever” and “Notget” in Madrid, an address to the audience by Greta Thunberg was displayed on the screen. The Swedish activist recorded this video for Björk’s show back in 2019, when she was a pop star like Björk herself. Since then, the young defender of nature has matured and been somewhat forgotten, but the content of her message to the audience has not become outdated at all. “… I don’t care about popularity, I care about climate justice and a living planet,” says Thunberg, among other things. “We are going to sacrifice our civilization for the sake of the possibility of a very small number of people to continue earning unimaginable amounts of money … We will not beg our leaders to show concern, they have ignored us in the past and will ignore us again, they have run out of excuses and we have run out of time. But I want to tell you that change is coming, whether they like it or not. The real power belongs to the people.” Perhaps, in four years, this text has even added new meanings.