Vespertine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vespertine
Vespertine cover
Studio album by Björk
Released August 27, 2001
Recorded 2000 - 2001
Genre Electronica, Ambient, Alternative
Length 55:33
Label One Little Indian
Producer Björk
Thomas Knak
Martin Console
Marius de Vries
Professional reviews
Björk chronology
Selmasongs
(2000)		 Vespertine
(2001)		 Greatest Hits
(2002)
Singles from Vespertine
  1. "Hidden Place"
    Released: August 2001
  2. "Pagan Poetry"
    Released: November 2001
  3. "Cocoon"
    Released: March 2002
For other uses, see Vespertine (disambiguation).

Vespertine, released in August of 2001, is an album by Icelandic singer/songwriter/musician Björk. This album saw Björk creating an introverted and quiet world of swirling microbeats and dreamy, personal lyrical themes. On the cover she can be seen wearing the swan dress (designed by Marjan Pejoski) that caused such a stir at the 2001 Academy Awards. It peaked at number eight in the UK Albums Chart, and number 19 in the U.S. Billboard 200. Vespertine was also nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 2002 Grammy Awards. Recently music webzine Drowned In Sound named Vespertine the number-one album of the last six years not to garner press attention.[1] Stylus Magazine placed it 36th on their 'Top 50 Albums: 2000-2005'.[2]

The album was originally released both on CD and on DVD-Audio in 5.1-channel advanced resolution.

Vespertine was also selected as one of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[3]

The album was re-released in 2006 as a DualDisc including a lower-quality DTS 96/24 version of the original advanced resolution 5.1 mix. The DualDisc also formed part of the (____surrounded): box set.

Contents

[edit] Album information

Björk utlizes an array of interesting sampled objects to create beats and soundscapes in a number of songs on Vespertine, including shuffling cards on "Cocoon" and "Hidden Place"; snow being walked upon on "Frosti" and ice being cracked/smashed on "Aurora", used to create drum beats.

Vespertine is Björk's longest album, at 55:33 (apart from compilations).

"Hidden Place", "Pagan Poetry" and "Cocoon" were released as singles from the album. A rumoured fourth, "It's Not Up to You", never made it to release, pending the birth of Björk's daughter Isadora.

The lyrics to "An Echo, a stain" are taken from Sarah Kane's play Crave.

The lyrics of "Harm of Will" was written by Harmony Korine, about Will Oldham (hence the title).

The last track on the album, "Unison," uses a sample of St Paul's Cathedral Choir singing a segment of Patrick Gowers' Viri Galilaei that was recorded back in 1994.

The first name for the album was Domestika. A song of the same name was recorded, but eventually was included as a B-side on the "Pagan Poetry" single as "Domestica", which has an original title of "Lost Keys".

Early versions of the album were leaked onto the internet with some differences to the final release. Tracks were in a different order, the song "It's in Our Hands" was originally included (replaced by the instrumental "Frosti" on the final version), and some tracks appeared under different titles, including "Pagan Poetry" ("Blueprint") and "Cocoon" ("Mouth").

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Hidden Place" (Björk, Guy Sigsworth, Mark Bell) – 5:31
  2. "Cocoon" (Björk, Thomas Knak) – 4:30
  3. "It's Not Up to You" (Björk) – 5:10
  4. "Undo" (Björk, Knak) – 5:40
  5. "Pagan Poetry" (Björk) – 5:16
  6. "Frosti" (Björk) – 1:43
  7. "Aurora" (Björk) – 4:39
  8. "An Echo, A Stain" (Björk, Sigsworth, Sarah Kane (lyrics)) – 4:06
  9. "Sun in My Mouth" (Björk, Sigsworth, E. E. Cummings) – 2:42
  10. "Heirloom" (Björk, Console) – 5:14
  11. "Harm of Will" (Björk, Sigsworth, Harmony Korine) – 4:38
  12. "Unison" (Björk) – 6:47
  13. "Generous Palmstroke" (Björk, Zeena Parkins) (Japanese bonus track) – 4:24

[edit] Samples

[edit] Quotes by Björk

"It sounds like a winter record. If you wake up in the middle of the night, and you go out in the garden, everything's going on out there that you wouldn't know about. That's the mood I'm trying to get. Snow owls represent that very well."

"I was bored of big beats. I'd listened a lot of it, to drill'n'bass, a lot of Rephlex stuff, the most mental cut-up shit that you could find. This is more electronic folk music, music for the home. It's corny to make a soundtrack for making a sandwich, but I quite like it. For so long I wanted to whisper. It was a watercolour as opposed to an oil. But 'Pagan Poetry' was the last song I did, and I was hungry for something physical again."

"I was collecting together all the noises that I know that are like hibernating and that sound like the inside of your head. I guess 'Vespertine' for me was going really, really, really internal and trying to make music with huffs and whispering and music boxes."

"Vespertine is little insects rising from the ashes."

[edit] Personnel

  • Björk - producer, programming, beat programming, basslines, string arrangements, choir arrangements, harp arrangements, music box arrangements, vocal editing
  • Valgeir Sigurðsson - programming, beat programming, ProTools, engineer
  • Martin Gretschmann aka Console (musician) - producer, programming
  • Jake Davies - programming, ProTools, engineer
  • Matthew Herbert - programming
  • Leigh Jamieson - ProTools
  • Thomas Knak - production, programming
  • Jan "Stan" Kybert - ProTools
  • Matmos - programming, beat programming
  • Vince Mendoza - string arrangements, choir arrangements, orchestration
  • Zeena Parkins - harp, harp arrangements
  • Jack Perron - adaptation to music box
  • Guy Sigsworth - programming, beat programming, celeste, celeste arrangements, clavichord, clavichord arrangements, choir arrangements
  • Mark "Spike" Stent - mixing
  • Damian Taylor - programming, beat programming, ProTools
  • Caryl Thomas - harp
  • Marius de Vries: producer, programming, beat programming
  • M/M (Paris) - art direction, design and illustration
  • Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin - photography
  • Patrick Gowers - Composer of Vocal and Organ Arrangements on Unison
  • St. Paul's Cathedral Choir, conducted by John Scott - Choir on Unison

[edit] Charts

Country Peak position Certification Sales
Australia 9
Austria 5
Canada 2 Gold 50,000+[4]
Finland 3
France 1 Platinum 222,000+
Italy 2
New Zealand 32
Norway 1
Poland 6
Sweden 7 Gold 30,000+
Switzerland 3
U.K. 8 Silver 60,000+
United States 19 404,000+

[edit] References

  1. ^ Drowned in Sound - Features - DiS is 6: Our 66, the top six
  2. ^ The Top 50 Albums: 2000-2005 - Article - Stylus Magazine
  3. ^ Outline Page
  4. ^ Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA): Certification Results

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Björk
Discography
Studio albums
Björk · Debut · Post · Homogenic · Vespertine · Medúlla · Volta
Soundtracks
Compilations
Singles
Other
Bands
Films