POP Bjork Campfield Market Hall, Manchester ***
If ever an artist was destined for the Manchester InternationalFestival it is Bjrk. Edgy, respected, continually pushing back thebarriers of her music over a long career - she brings together aformidable audience of men, women, gay, straight, pop fans andlovers of serious music. And here in the city where she forged herpost-Sugarcubes career with the assistance of 808 State's GrahamMassey, it seems fitting she should be providing the opening nightof the three-week extravaganza of delights. Many of the city's greatand good who turned out in force at the old Campfield Victorianmarket hall will have spent a good number of blissed-out dawnsunwinding to the Icelandic singer's first solo albums in the early1990s. Some will have followed her all the way since - Inuit throatsingers, swan dress and battered photographers included. Biophilia,her seventh studio album, is, we are told by the disembodiednarrator that presages her pixie-voiced arrival on stage, a linkbetween nature, music and technology - a "celebration of naturalphenomena from the atomic to the cosmic."
The project combines two versions of the same album, somespecially commissioned smartphone apps (first single "Crystalline"has already been released in this format) and some freaky inventedinstruments, namely custom-built, digitally controlled pipe organs,a gamelan-celeste hybrid and a 30-foot, gravity-powered pendulum.There is an internet presence, documentary, educational workshopsand, of course, the live show.
What we get on the night is Bjrk sporting an outlandish gingerwig, clad in floaty blue wrap and clingy emerald dress. She issupported by a 24-strong choir of Icelandic singers - part coven,part flock of nymphs. There are plenty of twinkly bells, theoccasional knee-buckling bass and some high-definition animations toaccompany Bjrk's hypnotic muse. We have starfish consuming whatlooks like a dead rabbit in "Hidden Place"; sprouting fungi in"Isobel"; and a tectonic lesson in seismology in "Where Is theLine?" But the standout performance harks back to an earlier, moreaccessible time. On "All Is Full of Love", Bjrk treats us to asoaring anthem, her extraordinary twisted Icelandic syntax in fullforce. She circles the stage sternly, stroking her belly while thechoir keens. Hands that had tentatively been raised skywards are nowproperly hoisted.
Manchester International Festival: to 16 July (0161 238 7300)
No comments:
Post a Comment