Music

For most of us and without any criticism on our part, the surname -Guðmundsdóttir- of the singer born in 1965 in Reykjavik is sneezed rather than pronounced...

For the whole world, the elf of the Sugarcubes, her first band put together in 1988, is introduced just by her first name. And in the music industry, no one else is called Björk. After their separation in 1991, the singer embarked on a solo career that would become more and more demanding. With "Fossora", her last collection of songs in 2022 already left room for, at times, difficult experiments. Her latest collaboration with Dirty Projectors last year pushes the cursor even further. Although her repertoire no longer includes choruses like "Human Behaviour", "Army Of Me" or "It's Oh So Quiet", the singer's voice remains as unique and even fascinating as ever. 

A polymorphic artist, Björk has always been interested in different forms of expression. Taking particular care of her image, since her metamorphosis into a model for a Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion show in 1994, she has forged close relationships with some cutting-edge designers such as Manish Arora, Alander McQueen or the Dutch designer Iris Van Herpen. No lucrative promotional contracts for the big names in luxury, but a real boost for young talent. It's all to her credit...

Following a few tumultuous encounters with indelicate paparazzi and a few blows exchanged, in Bangkok and New Zealand, the singer is avoids media lenses and we can understand why.

FLASH BACK
In my archives, I found this article published in December 1993 in the pages of the weekly "La Cité" a few days after her first concert in Belgium

For a few years, the Sugarcubes splashed the quiet European pop with their crazy choruses. Overlooked by the high-pitched squawks of Björk Gundminsdottir, a tiny woman as tall as three apples, their songs either irritated or fascinated. No half measures. "We were never a real band," remembers Björk. "To kill time on Sundays, we started playing music with a bunch of friends."

With charming bad faith, the kid willingly forgets that her father often deserted the family home to warm up the freezing nights of Reykjavik with his musician friends. Pushed onto the stage at the age when her friends were still doing their 'Barbies' hair, Björk recorded her first album Ö at the age of eleven. Ironically, this was in 1977 at the very moment when punks were invading Great Britain...

FROM PUNK TO POP
Logically, the young lady's first musical emotions were provoked by the stiff beer crests of the Sex Pistols and, perhaps also, their thunderous choruses. Even before forming the Sugarcubes, with the blessing of Jaz Coleman and Youth (Killing Joke), she made a handful of extremely turbulent records for the Crass label, a refuge for the last vaguely anarchist yellers. 

With a sometimes questionable sense of balance, the Sugarcubes worked for about five years to marry their insatiable desire for bizarre experimentation and a resolutely accessible writing style. Not content with sowing discord in Europe with their deliberately disconcerting records, "Life's Too Good" in 88 and "Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week" the following year, they immediately shared their fresh fame with their compatriots. The Sugarcubes set up an organization combining a radio station, an art gallery, a bookstore and a label under the unmistakable name of Bad Taste!

FALSE BEGINNING
While the Sugarcubes were gradually dissolving into their own delusions, Bjôrk was already considering new collaborations. Calmed down or, more precisely, finally revealing her true personality, she rekindled the flame of Icelandic nursery rhymes from the fifties with a jazzy twist for an album entitled "Gling Glo" before offering her services to 808 State for the song "Oops".

Imperceptibly, she underlines her nascent interest in jazz ("Like Someone In Love"), dance ("Crying" and "Big Time Sensuality") and strange fiddling ("There's More To Life Than This"). On this extremely promising false "Debut", Björk explores both paths in the company of Soul II Soul producer Nellee Hooper and continues her merry way by hitting us with an unreleased film illustrating in her own way "The Young Americans", an English film that has still not found a distributor in our country. Björk has just brought Brussels to its knees, we must now reckon with her...

(MH with AK - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Björk on stage at the Werchter Festival on the 7th (Belgium) in July 1996