Vespertine

Vespertine is the fourth studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was released on 27 August 2001 in the United Kingdom by One Little Indian Records and in the United States by Elektra Entertainment. Production on the album began during the filming of Dancer in the Dark, which was characterized by conflict between her and director Lars von Trier. Vespertine's sound reflected Björk's newly found interest in the music of artists such as Opiate and Console, who were also enlisted as producers. Björk wanted to make an album with an intimate, domestic sound, deviating from the sonority of her previous studio album Homogenic (1997). With the rising popularity of Napster and music downloads, she decided to use instruments whose sounds would not be compromised when downloaded and played on a computer, including the harp, the celesta, clavichord, strings, and custom music boxes. Assisted by the duo Matmos, Björk created 'microbeats' from various household sounds, such as that of shuffling cards and ice being cracked. Lyrically, the album revolves around sex and love — sometimes explicitly — inspired by her's new relationship with Matthew Barney; other lyrical sources include a poem by E. E. Cummings, Sarah Kane's play Crave, and dialogues written by Harmony Korine. Björk, a self-titled coffee table book containing photographs of herself throughout her career, was released simultaneously with the album. Vespertine peaked at number 19 on the US Billboard 200 and at number 8 on the UK Albums Chart, and was widely acclaimed by critics, with praise centred on its erotic, intimate mood and sonic experimentation. It appeared on several publications' lists of the best albums of 2001 and of the decade, and has often been considered Björk's best album to date. The album was certified gold in Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. Three singles were released from Vespertine: 'Hidden Place', 'Pagan Poetry', and 'Cocoon'. In 2001, she enlisted Zeena Parkins, Matmos, and a choir of Inuit women to embark on the Vespertine World Tour, which took place at theatres and small venues to favor the acoustics for the concerts. In July 1996, Björk published a poem titled 'Techno Prayer' in Details magazine which would later be used as part of the lyrics of 'All Neon Like'. It featured thematic ideas such as cocooning and thread-weaving that she would later explore on Vespertine. Björk had released her previous studio album, Homogenic, in 1997. The album was highly acclaimed on its initial release and stylistically differed from her previous two releases, described by her as 'very emotionally confrontational and very dramatic'. She also described 'All Is Full of Love' — Homogenic's closing track — as the first song on Vespertine, as it opposed the rest of the album's 'aggressive, macho' aesthetic. In 2000, she starred in Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, and composed its soundtrack, Selmasongs. The filming process was conflictive. Von Trier believes the problem was two-fold: they were both used to being the 'dictator' over their products, and Björk was unable to separate herself from her character while acting. Björk wrote 'he has to destroy during the filming' and declared that she would never make another movie. Her performance was praised: the film was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and she received the Best Actress award. On 25 March 2001, Björk attended the 73rd Academy Awards — as 'I've Seen It All' was nominated for Best Original Song — wearing a swan dress designed by Marjan Pejoski that caused a media frenzy and was widely criticized. While she worked on the film, she also began producing her next album, writing new music, and teaming with new collaborators. She has said 'Selmasongs was the day job and Vespertine was the hobby'. The earliest sessions took place in Spain with programmer Jake Davies. Her new relationship with artist Matthew Barney, and the tension while filming Dancer in the Dark, have been referred to as the two major forces that shaped what would become Vespertine. As the process of filming demanded that she be extroverted, the new music she was creating became hushed and tranquil as a way to escape. Björk commissioned Valgeir Sigurðsson to relocate some of his studio equipment from Iceland to Denmark where Dancer in the Dark was being filmed. While living in Copenhagen, she also contacted the electronic musician Thomas Knak (also known as Opiate), after having enjoyed his 1999 album Objects for an Ideal Home. Björk's musical taste shifted from the 'clang and clatter' and 'thumping techno' that characterized Homogenic, as she grew tired of 'big beats'. Björk then set about making a record with a domestic mood featuring 'everyday moods and everyday noises translating into melodies and beats', hence its working title Domestika. She began to use her laptop to write music, and Vespertine has been retrospectively referred to as 'her laptop album'. For the string and music box arrangements, she used Sibelius scorewriter software. In Iceland, programmers Jake Davies and Marius de Vries joined Björk for a writing session, laying down more tracks, in addition to nine already mixed. Then, she 'set up camp during summer' in a New York City loft, and began to work with harpist Zeena Parkins. Much of Vespertine was 'composed, crafted and edited' in that loft, in what has been called the 'Domestika sessions'. Some tracks were recorded as an overdub 'on top of a slave mixdown' of the Spanish sessions. As she wanted to write her own songs on music boxes, Björk contacted a music box company requesting transparent acrylic boxes because she wanted the sound to be 'as hard as possible, like it was frozen'. Björk decided to use instruments whose sound would not be compromised when downloaded from sites such as Napster. She explained: In Homogenic, every track was built around a loud beat, but in Vespertine Björk wanted to make a 'microcosmos of thirty or forty beats interacting'. To do this, she recorded noises around her house to make beats out of them. Once the songs were almost finished, Björk contacted the duo Matmos, who she considered 'virtuosos' in the field, and sent them various songs to work with. They added beats made from the noise of crushing ice and shuffling cards, among others. In her documentary Minuscule, Björk explained that this process consisted of 'taking something very tiny and magnifying it up to big', intending to convey the 'sensation that you've been told a secret', that is also present in micrographs. Her relationship with Barney influenced her lyrics, which were now more intimate, detailed, and revealing as opposed to those of her past works. A particular example is 'Cocoon', which is sexually explicit. The eventual title change of the record reveals its changing nature. Writer and critic Mark Pytlik notes that, 'where signified a focus of extracting magic from the platitudes of everyday life, suggested a creation of magic through much more powerful forces. In fine style, Björk had set out to write an album about making sandwiches. She'd ended up with an album about making love'.