Björk
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Interview by Ben Thompson, ES, September 2000
THE VIEW FROM the roof garden of Björk's penthouse suite at New York's elegant Soho Grand hotel is almost too much to take in at ...
Audio interviews
Interview by David Toop, Rock's Backpages audio, 5 March 2001
Björk talks about making Vespertine, her working process and how much she reveals herself; about storytelling and relationships, abstraction versus narrative, nature and technology, fantasy and reality; about her vocal progress from Homogenic to Vespertine... and about having dinner with David Attenborough.
File format: mp3; file size: 69.8mb, interview length: 1h 12' 45" sound quality: ****
List of articles in the library
Rock From Reykjavik: Behold Bjork and her Sugarcubes
Interview by Gerrie Lim, Exposure, September 1988
THEY COME FROM a land of ice and snow, where volcanic peaks and photogenic glaciers surround settlements given to fish factories and sundry cottage industries, ...
The Sugarcubes: "World Domination or Die!"
Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, October 1989
Such is the manifesto of Iceland's Sykurmolar, internationally more familiar as The Sugarcubes. And to this end they have invested funds from their rapidly increasing ...
808 State plus Björk: Lido, Reykjavik
Live Review by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 23 February 1991
CUBIK ICELANDIK ...
808 State, N-Joi: G-Mex, Manchester
Live Review by John Robb, Sounds, 23 March 1991
THE RETURN to G-Mex, the core combat zone of the Manchester thing, could have been disturbing. Like, is there a thing going on anymore? The ...
Björk & 808 State: In Yer Glacier!
Report and Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 23 March 1991
I love the smell of God's farts in the morning... It smells of Reykjavik to me! Deep in the Icelandic countryside, surrounded by vile-smelling sulphur ...
Interview by Simon Witter, The Sunday Times Magazine, 21 February 1993
A brief interview piece from early '93, just before her album Debut came out. Nobody, least of all her, had any idea how huge it ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993
With Icelandic indie stadium-fillers The Sugarcubes on seemingly permanent hold, singer Bjork Gudmundsdottir launches her solo career this month with a single, ‘Human Behaviour’. She ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 22 August 1993
The singer Björk has gone solo, as some devotees always felt she should. ...
Review by Tom Graves, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1993
MONTHS BEFORE the Sugar Cubes' first album debuted in the United States, a heavy buzz began to circulate about the group's lead singer, Björk. ...
Björk Gudmundsdottir's Record Collection
Interview by Martin Aston, Q, October 1993
DOWN THE concrete steps, round the back and to the left, you'll find Björk Gudmundsdottir's comfortably compact and bijou new residence, on the cusp of ...
Björk — "I only really grew up two years ago."
Interview by Martin Aston, Select, January 1994
NOBODY WILL DARE SAY 'elfin' again... Few had much time for Bjork and her quirky solo project this time last year. There she goes, they ...
Björk: Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, January 1994
LAST TIME I SAW BJÖRK ON STAGE SHE WAS WITH THE Sugarcubes and I didn’t really see her at all: either Einar the Irritating or ...
Live Review by David Cavanagh, The Independent, 27 February 1994
THE COOL ALBUM of 1993 was Björk Gudmundsdottir's prosaically titled Debut. Despite this, her entrance at the Royalty Theatre displayed uncoolness of equatorial proportions. With ...
Interview by Graham Reid, Vox, April 1994
From earthquakes in LA to cyclones Down Under, wherever Björk walks, mesmerized crowds and natural disasters follow ...
PJ Harvey, Björk, and Tori Amos: Hips. Lips. Tits. Power.
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, May 1994
Well, would you spill their pint? In the last 18 months, Polly Harvey, Björk, and Tori Amos have rogered the charts with their special brew ...
Interview by Frank Broughton, i-D, September 1994
A new remix album and video? The perfect excuse for a celebratory night of rock'n'roll excess with Queen B. ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, Ray Gun, May 1995
HER HOUSE IS set back from the street, on a wide avenue in Maida Vale. A pair of imposing, wrought iron security gates shield it ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, June 1995
POP IS BACK, rock is dead (again). That, at any rate, is one conclusion we could draw from the success of Bjork Gudmundsdottir. ...
Report and Interview by Craig McLean, The Face, June 1995
Two years ago Björk drove herself into the nation's hearts with Debut. Now she's back with a new LP that's even stranger and more compelling. ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Interview, June 1995
POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS in a studio high above Covent Garden, Björk is exactly like her image – a little taller, perhaps, but everything else is ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 1995
The Voice of Future Past ...
Interview by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 24 June 1995
NOW HERE'S what you know about Björk. She's tiny, elfin, mad as a rabbit, childish, arty, trendy and Icelandic. ...
Review by Andy Gill, Q, July 1995
HAVING EFFECTED the transition from cult figure to '90s style object with the universally popular Debut, Björk Gundmundsdottir's Post finds her and producer Nellee Hooper ...
Venus As A Joy: Björk: SFX City Theatre, Dublin
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 22 July 1995
"SIX YEARS AGO," gasps Björk in her decidedly over-affected five-year-old-geisha-girl voice, "I was here in this very room with Sugarcubes. Nostalgic but true. Thank you, ...
Interview by Stuart Maconie, Q, September 1995
ICELAND, OR Lydvelid Island to give it its native name, is the westernmost state of Europe. It is a land of magnificent geo-physical architecture; three ...
Live Review by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 1 September 1995
Britpop may be bland, but the Reading Festival shows we are over the dark days of last year ...
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, October 1995
Bjork hasn’t let two years of critical kudos and VIP bullshit go to her head. As she heads out on a major world tour, VOX ...
Björk, Goldie: Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 3 November 1995
Björk Plays to Her Strengths With Reflective, Lyrical Style ...
Björk, Underworld, 808 State: Irvine Beach '96, Irvine Beach Park, Scotland
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 14 September 1996
BEACHED WAILS ...
Bjork: Love Her or Loathe Her?
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, New Woman, Spring 1996
THERE SEEMS TO be a bit of a backlash against Bjork Gudmundsdottir, but God knows why. From every angle she strikes me as a thrilling ...
Post-Post: Bjork goes Homogenic
Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1997
"I LOVE MY job sometimes," cackles Bjork down the line from Miami. ...
Björk: Homogenic (Elektra) ***½
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 21 September 1997
Björk's Quirks Give Way to a Enchanting Vision ...
Bjork: Homogenic (One Little Indian)
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, October 1997
JUST HOW good is Bjork? Artists appearing fully-formed, uncompromisingly individual, interesting but often disturbingly idiosyncratic – think of Thelonious Monk or even Kate Bush – ...
Review by James Hunter, Spin, October 1997
THE SINGER throws up lyrics about pursuit and desertion. A snare drum lightly skips across a series of bass pinpoints, an organic foundation unthinkable before ...
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, November 1997
THE RICKETY HAMMERSMITH RESIDENCE WHICH houses TFI Friday’s dressing rooms is an alarming place to find yourself, and not just because there’s a chance of ...
Bjork: Homogenic (One Little Indian)
Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, November 1997
HUMAN BEHAVIOUR being what it is, I've already heard half a dozen journalists declaring this, Bjork's third solo album, to be no great shakes. I'm ...
Who the Hell Does Björk Think She Is?
Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, November 1997
She does weird, waily pop diva. Her producers do the rest. Often they do even more than that. Which leaves her free to turn on ...
Björk: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 15 November 1997
Iceland's icon scares the hell out of Caroline Sullivan at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. ...
Björk: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 16 November 1997
They are not worthy. But neither is she ...
Interview by David Toop, bjork.com, 2000
"I STILL HAVE so much music in my head," said Maurice Ravel. "I haven't said anything yet, and I have still so much to say." ...
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Q, October 2000
Miraculously, nothing in the postbag about elves or smoked auk; instead it was journo-bashing, fan-suicides and Goldie's "teeth" all the way for the Palme d'Or-winning ...
Björk: SelmaSongs (One Little Indian TPLP1 51 CD)
Review by David Toop, The Wire, November 2000
THE FIRST admission to make is that I haven't yet seen Lars Von Trier's Dancer In The Dark, the film that stars Björk and features ...
Bjork: Selmasongs; PJ Harvey: Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
OUTSIDE OF Kid A, Thom Yorke made two significant cameo appearances in A.D. 2000. Both were on albums by dark, "difficult" women who’ve spearheaded change ...
Guide by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 18 December 2000
FOR A MUSIC whore like myself, even a good album can be a little like a one-night stand. There's that lovely moment of courting, checking ...
Laptop punk and the powerbook pop
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, August 2001
All this faceless electronica leaving you cold? A new breed of avant-garde mischief-makers are disrupting techno's cult of impersonality with indie-rock attitude and a warped ...
Björk: The Last Great Pop Star
Interview by Nick Coleman, The Independent, 9 August 2001
She thumps reporters, wears funny clothes and thinks she was born in the wrong century. Now she's made an album about her kitchen. Nick Coleman ...
Alone in the Dark: Björk on Vespertine
Interview by David Toop, The Wire, September 2001
Björk's eerie night songs are infused with the mythological landscapes of her native Iceland and the concrete fjords of Manhattan. She tells David Toop about ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, October 2001
SHE'S NOT A bit how you'd think she'd be. From the public persona of song and video, you might reasonably expect effervescence, an explosive extravagance ...
Björk: Radio City Music Hall, NYC
Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 5 October 2001
IT'S RARE WHEN a pop star is also a prophet. The awesomeness possessed by those few who transcend celebrity to enter the echelons of cult ...
Music for a Divine Moment: The Best Music of 2001
Guide by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 17 December 2001
IN THESE DAYS of crusades, jihads, and God-Bless-This-Lands, I've been wondering why so much music writing is riddled with religious imagery. ...
“In England they think I'm one of the Teletubbies”: Björk
Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 25 October 2002
Björk looks back on two decades of music, fame and scrapping with the media. ...
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Word, July 2003
"I LOVE HIM, I love him, I love him, I love him/ This time, I'm gonna keep it to myself." Björk is swaying as she ...
Björk: "This Time It's Intuition Only – No Brain, Please"
Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 14 August 2004
Icelandic singer Björk has made a compelling new album that contains not a single musical instrument and is named after the Latin for 'marrow'. Robert ...
Comment by Marc Weingarten, Slate, 14 September 2004
BJÖRK HAS A KNACK for making records that don't sound like anyone else's. With each new offering—from 1993's Debut, an album that roamed freely through ...
Björk: Medúlla (One Little Indian)
Review by Jude Rogers, The Word, October 2004
Stark spirituals, tortured hymns and schizophrenic requiems: Medúlla sees our favourite Icelander at her most ethereally eccentric ...
Interview by Martin Aston, MOJO, November 2004
"Elfish Icelandic pixie" Björk made her first LP at 11, then dived into Crass-approved "existentialist punk jazz". Now, fresh from playing to four billion people, ...
Losing My Origin: Björk's 20-Year Voyage Into the Musical Unknown
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, eMusic.com, July 2007
I HAVE A ten-year-old son who loves OutKast and Kanye West but recoils in horror when I play favourite albums by Kate Bush or Mary ...
Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 3 July 2007
WHEN MADONNA OR DAVID BOWIE enlists the latest production gurus to spice up their music, the results frequently come off sounding desperate, as if the ...
Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, August 2007
COMES A TIME in every girl's life where she's got to reach for the trigger and take aim at the motherfuckers (usually mostly guys) who ...
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Lipster, March 2008
BACK IN OCTOBER last year, in the misty early days of The Lipster, I e-mailed Björk's publicist, telling him about the plans for our website, ...
Interview by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 27 March 2008
Independence Day: Björk's cry of "Tibet, Tibet" at a recent concert in Shanghai pre-empted the riots in Lhasa and outraged the Chinese authorities. It was ...
Is Björk the last great pop innovator?
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 4 July 2011
EARLIER THIS YEAR I interviewed Amanda Brown of cult band LA Vampires and was surprised when she announced that "every day I wake up and ...
Björk: Manchester International Festival
Live Review by Rob Hughes, The Word, September 2011
Björk's new live show: sci-fi, gothic soundtrack and head-scrambling visuals. Each song comes with an interactive app. ...
Review by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 7 October 2011
Every so often an album comes along that not only justifies its hype but outweighs it. ...
Bjork: Biophilia (One Little Indian) **
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 7 October 2011
BJÖRK IS undoubtedly one of the more questing spirits working in music today; but with Biophilia, that quest seems to have led her too far ...
Björk Brings Her Biophilia Concert Extravaganza to Iceland
Live Review by Kieron Tyler, Billboard, 13 October 2011
REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Two days after the release of Biophilia, her new multi-platform project, Iceland's foremost sonic auteur Björk took the stage in her hometown ...
Report and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 18 October 2011
IT'S A SAD IRONY: The digitization of music has impoverished the average listening experience. Not only do compressed files sound meagre compared to the sonic ...
In The Mood: The Favourite Albums Of Rush's Geddy Lee
Guide by Mick Middles, The Quietus, 29 June 2012
Mick Middles speaks to Rush bassist and singer Geddy Lee about his favourite albums of all times... and finds surprises amidst the classic of the ...
Pop in 2013 — Under the influence
Preview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 3 January 2013
What to listen out for this year. ...
Thrall of Sound: An Elemental Conversation With Björk
Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, 7 January 2013
"They only live who dare." ...
Björk: Still underestimated after all these years
Comment by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 3 September 2013
Ben Thompson salutes the maverick Icelander's cunning, as she prepares to play her most recent album, Biophilia, in London for the first time. ...
Björk: Vulnicura (One Little Indian)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, March 2015
The grand drama of the latest Björk album reveals command of texture and mood as her survival mechanism. ...
Björk: "I couldn't just write a disco song"
Interview by Sophie Heawood, The Guardian, 12 March 2015
Björk's new album Vulnicura documents the mess and pain of a breakup, but she's not downhearted. She talks about the influence of British punk and ...
Björk: Vulnicura (One Little Indian)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, April 2015
WHILE THE initial conversation surrounding Björk’s latest full-length concerned the internet leaks that led to its premature online release, it quickly became apparent that the ...
Björk: Manchester International Festival
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 5 July 2015
Despite basing her show around heartbreak, Björk was clearly having fun, says Rob Hughes. ...
Björk on Iceland: "We don't go to church, we go for a walk"
Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 16 November 2015
Björk used to walk across the tundra singing at the top of her lungs. John Grant left America for its rocky grandeur and Sigur Rós's ...
In Björk Digital, you become the singer's ex-lover – and there's no looking away
Report by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 9 September 2016
Björk's new experiment takes music of claustrophobic unhappiness and shifts it into a relentless, dynamic world. ...
Björk: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 22 September 2016
The Icelandic star's electrifying voice and sense of fun transcend the conventional setting. ...
Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 20 November 2019
IS IT A concert, theatre or an avant-garde work of art? A futuristic, flute lovers' nature show, perhaps, with heavenly Icelandic choir, multiple environmental warnings ...
Greta Thunberg and Björk in conversation
Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 17 October 2022
The world's leading voice for climate action and its most original singer-songwriter discuss greenwashing, fame, Cop27, music and the matriarchy. ...
see also Sugarcubes, The
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