Bjork

Björk stands out for her seamless integration of experimental and mainstream sounds, crafting works that balance bold originality with heartfelt resonance. Upon stepping out on her own as an Icelandic vocalist, lyricist, beatmaker, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist, she left behind the artistic rock style of the Sugarcubes to embrace dance music, enlisting leading figures from that world such as Nellee Hooper, Underworld, and Tricky. She set her fresh course with the 1993 release Debut, an international multi-platinum success that led into two further trailblazing efforts: 1995’s Post, another major commercial triumph that captured her most accessible side while merging jazz, industrial textures, and varied electronic styles, and 1997’s Homogenic, a bold marriage of orchestral strings and broken rhythms that hinted at the more adventurous path ahead. She moved between the bold intimacy of 2001’s Vespertine and the raw vocal layers of 2004’s Medúlla before exploring fresh links between people, machines, and sound on 2011’s Biophilia. Later in the decade and beyond, Björk offered intense reflections on grief and recovery through releases like 2015’s Vulnicura and 2022’s Fossora, both of which confirmed her status among the era’s most distinctive and impactful creators.

Born in Reykjavik in 1965 to activist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, Björk grew up in a communal setting alongside her mother and stepfather Sævar Árnason, a guitarist with the band Pops. She took piano and flute lessons at the Reykjavik institution Barnamúsíkskóli; after performing Tina Charles’ “I Love to Love” during a school event, her instructors forwarded a tape to Iceland’s Radio One, which aired it nationwide. A deal with the Fálkinn record label came next, leading Björk to cut her self-titled debut album at age 11. Issued in Iceland in December 1977, Björk found success locally and featured interpretations of several pop tracks, among them the Beatles’ “Fool on the Hill.”

As the 1970s wound down, punk reshaped Björk’s listening habits. She assembled the post-punk outfit Exodus in 1979 and performed with Jam 80 the year after. In 1981, Björk and Exodus bassist Jakob Magnusson launched Tappi Tikarrass, which put out the EP Bitid Fast I Vitid on Spor that same year; the full-length Miranda followed in 1983. After Tappi Tikarrass, she formed the goth-inflected post-punk ensemble KUKL alongside Einar Orn Benediktsson. KUKL issued two albums, The Eye (1984) and Holidays in Europe (1986), via Crass Records. In this period, Björk also released the poetry collection Um Úrnat frá Björk in 1984 and made her screen debut in The Juniper Tree, which reached theaters in 1990. When KUKL disbanded in mid-1986, Björk, Benediktsson, and other ex-members established the Smekkleysa (“Bad Taste”) arts collective, whose projects encompassed the Sugarcubes. The Sugarcubes quickly rose to prominence at home and became one of the few Icelandic acts to break through internationally when their debut album, Life’s Too Good, scored hits in Britain and America in 1988. While the group paused after the Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! tour, Björk explored separate ventures, among them Gling-Gló, a 1990 collection of jazz standards and new material with the Icelandic bebop trio Gudmundar Ingolfssonar, plus a project with Current 93. She further penned original songs and appeared on two tracks from 808 State’s 1991 album ex:el, an encounter that ignited her passion for house music.

Following the recording and touring for the Sugarcubes’ final album, 1992’s Stick Around for Joy, Björk relocated to London to begin her solo work. Teaming with Massive Attack’s Nellee Hooper as co-producer, she merged fresh compositions with pieces written in her teenage years and drew on sources ranging from Bollywood and exotica to jazz alongside electronic music. Boasting input from Talvin Singh, jazz harpist Corky Hale, and reedist Oliver Lake, Debut—titled by Björk to emphasize its musical restart—surfaced in June 1993. It rapidly became her biggest achievement yet: the album garnered broad critical praise and climbed to number two on the Icelandic charts and number three on the U.K. Album Charts. Debut earned double-platinum status in the U.K. and platinum certification in four additional nations, including the U.S., while attaining gold in five more countries. Propelled by a striking Michel Gondry video, the single “Human Behaviour” reached the U.K. Top 40, followed by “Venus as a Boy,” “Big Time Sensuality,” and “Violently Happy.” At year’s end, NME named Debut album of the year, while Björk claimed International Female Solo Artist and Newcomer honors at the BRIT Awards; at the 1994 Grammy Awards, Gondry’s video earned a nomination for Best Short Form Music Video.

Björk extended the momentum of Debut through several joint projects. “Play Dead,” a collaboration with David Arnold created for the film The Young Americans, surfaced soon after the album and was added as a bonus track on a later edition. In 1994, she contributed vocals to Plaid’s album Not for Threes, co-wrote Madonna’s “Bedtime Stories,” and took an uncredited part in Robert Altman’s Prêt-à-Porter. She also shaped her second album with Hooper, Tricky, 808 State’s Graham Massey, and Howie B of Mo’ Wax Records serving as co-producers; additional partners included Talvin Singh and Brazilian composer and conductor Eumir Deodato. Cut in Nassau and London, June 1995’s Post expanded Björk’s sonic range further, weaving industrial, ambient, IDM, trip-hop, and jazz elements into a vivid portrait of her life after settling in London. Celebrated for its blend of pop and experimental music, the album scored another critical and commercial victory. Post landed in the Top Ten across more than 20 countries, including a number-two peak in the U.K., and reached number 32 in the U.S. It received platinum certification in four nations, including the U.K. and the U.S., and gold status in four others. Post spawned the singles “Army of Me,” “Isobel,” “Hyperballad,” and “It’s Oh So Quiet,” the last of which topped the Icelandic charts and reached the Top Ten in four additional countries. The album’s honors encompassed the Icelandic Music Award for Album of the Year and a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album, while Björk secured the Icelandic Music Awards for Artist of the Year, Female Singer of the Year, and Composer of the Year, plus her second Brit Award for Best International Female Solo Artist. In addition, Spike Jonze’s striking video for “It’s Oh So Quiet,” which drew from classic Hollywood musicals, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video. To promote the record, Björk undertook her first official North American tour alongside Aphex Twin and documented the European leg plus the album’s creation in the book Post. November 1996 brought Telegram, a remix collection featuring contributions from LFO, Massey, Deodato, Dillinja, and percussionist Evelyn Glennie. The album climbed to number 66 on the U.S. charts and number 59 in the U.K.

Following the extended Post tour and an attack by a fixated admirer, Björk retreated to Málaga, Spain to prepare her next album. Pursuing a more unified sound inspired by Iceland’s terrain, she paired dense beats with expansive strings and enlisted co-producers Mark Bell, Guy Sigsworth, Howie B, and Markus Dravs, along with the Icelandic String Octet and Deodato, who supplied further string arrangements. Released in September 1997, the atmospheric yet intense Homogenic proved another success: it entered the Top Ten in 15 countries and earned gold certification in six nations, including the U.S. In addition to securing Björk her third Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist, Homogenic received a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Performance, while Gondry’s video for the single “Bachelorette” and Chris Cunningham’s video for “All Is Full of Love” earned Grammy nods for Best Short Form Music Video in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

Early in 1999, Björk began work on Lars von Trier’s film Dancer in the Dark, taking the lead role of Selma and writing and producing the score. At the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, Dancer in the Dark claimed the Palme d’Or, and Björk was awarded Best Actress. Later that year, her score for the film appeared as Selmasongs, which included contributions from Homogenic collaborator Bell and “I’ve Seen It All,” a duet with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke that received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. Amid the demanding Dancer in the Dark production, Björk crafted delicate, layered songs that offered both refuge and a celebration of her bond with artist Matthew Barney. Written and recorded across Spain, Denmark, Iceland, and New York, Vespertine arrived in August 2001 and featured input from Barney, Jake Davies, Marius de Vries, Thomas Knak, Matmos, and harpist Zeena Parkins. Garnering acclaim for its refined textures and intimate, exposed songwriting, the album topped the charts in five countries including Iceland and earned gold certification in six nations; in the U.S., it reached number one on the Top Electronic Albums chart. Vespertine received Grammy and Icelandic Music Award nominations for Best Alternative Album and Album of the Year, respectively, while Björk earned a Brit Award nomination for Best International Female Solo Artist. She brought Parkins, Matmos, and a choir of Inuit women on the Vespertine tour, later documenting its intimate shows via the 2002 DVD Live at Royal Opera House and the following year’s Miniscule. During this stretch, she also issued Family Tree, a box set compiling rarities and unreleased material; Greatest Hits, a collection of tracks selected by fans via her website; and Live Box, a set of live recordings and videos drawn from each of her albums.

For her subsequent album, Björk shifted from Vespertine’s intricate electronics toward the elemental force of the human voice. Working with Robert Wyatt, Mike Patton, Rahzel, Japanese beatboxer Dokaka, Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq (who had also joined the Vespertine tour), the Icelandic and London Choirs, Nico Muhly, and Matmos among numerous others, she released Medúlla in August 2004. Titled after the Latin term for “marrow,” the predominantly a cappella album drew praise for its innovative focus on music’s core elements and vocal expression. Its worldwide reach included Top Ten placements in 19 countries, gold certifications in France and Russia, silver status in the U.K., a number-one peak on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart in the U.S., and an Icelandic Music Award nomination for Pop Album of the Year. Björk also secured Grammy nominations for Best Alternative Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the track “Oceania,” which she performed at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The next year, she collaborated with Barney on his film Drawing Restraint 9, appearing in it and composing its soundtrack. She further featured in Screaming Masterpiece, a 2005 documentary exploring Iceland’s music scene. Late in 2006, she and the remaining Sugarcubes members reunited for a benefit show for the band’s former label Smekkleysa.

In 2007, Björk’s rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “The Boho Dance,” included on A Tribute to Joni Mitchell, preceded the May arrival of her sixth album Volta. A rhythmic, playful effort, it featured Timbaland, Toumani Diabaté, Antony Hegarty, Konono No. 1, and an all-female Icelandic brass section. Entering the Top Ten in 18 countries, including the U.S.—marking her highest-charting album there—it attained silver certification in the U.K. Like its predecessor, the album earned Grammy and Icelandic Music Award nominations. Björk toured in support of Volta for a year and a half, with the 2009 release Voltaic, issued in formats ranging from CD/DVD packages to limited multi-disc and vinyl editions, preserving select performances.

Throughout the Volta tour, Björk kept developing new material, issuing the single “Náttúra” in October 2008. In 2010, she partnered with Dirty Projectors on the Mount Wittenberg Orca EP, appeared on albums by Ólöf Arnalds and Anohni, and honored her late collaborator and friend Alexander McQueen by performing at the designer’s funeral and contributing the previously unreleased song “Trance” to the short film To Lee, With Love. That year, she also received the Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music alongside Ennio Morricone.

Björk’s following endeavor, Biophilia, ranked among her most expansive. An interactive examination of humanity’s ties to sound and the cosmos that taught listeners about music theory and science, it took form through engineers, scientists, custom instruments, and video game designers. Released as a collection of apps for the iPad and iPhone plus a CD edition, Biophilia arrived in October 2011. A Top Ten hit in six countries, the album again topped the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart in the U.S. and earned Grammy and Icelandic Music Award nominations for Best Alternative Album. Bastards, a set of Biophilia remixes featuring Death Grips and Omar Souleyman, surfaced in Europe in late 2012 and in the U.S. in early 2013. The Biophilia apps were adapted for Android in July 2013, the same month the BBC Channel 4 documentary When Björk Met Attenborough, featuring Sir David Attenborough and scientist Oliver Sacks and linking Biophilia to humanity’s connection with music, premiered. In 2014, Björk contributed vocals to Death Grips’ album Niggas on the Moon. She also extended the Biophilia project with the live concert film Biophilia Live. Shot at London’s Alexandra Palace and showcasing striking visuals, it received theatrical release along with DVD and Blu-ray editions that included the live audio on CD. That year, the Biophilia apps entered the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.

By late 2014, Björk was completing her next album. Featuring work with Arca and the Haxan Cloak, Vulnicura emerged in January 2015 after leaking ahead of its planned March date. Charting the aftermath of Björk’s relationship with Barney and recalling the string-and-beat-driven sounds of Vespertine and Homogenic, the album drew enthusiastic reviews for its raw emotional weight. Topping the Icelandic charts and reaching number 11 in the U.K., Vulnicura also charted across Europe and landed in the U.S. Top 20. It won Best Album at the Icelandic Music Awards, while Björk claimed the awards for Best Female Artist, Best Songwriter, and Best Producer. At that year’s Brit Awards, she was named International Female Solo Artist—her fifth Brit Award—and Vulnicura received a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album, her seventh nod in the category. In March 2015, the Museum of Modern Art opened a multimedia exhibition tracing Björk’s career from Debut through Vulnicura. It displayed her notebooks, costumes, the instruments built for Biophilia, and videos, including a film for the Vulnicura track “Black Lake” directed by Andrew Thomas Huang and commissioned by the museum. The book Björk: Archives documented the exhibition.

That March, Björk also began the Vulnicura world tour, supported by Alarm Will Sound and percussionist Manu Delago, with Arca joining on theater dates and the Haxan Cloak on festival shows. A series of Vulnicura remixes began in July, with Lotic, Katie Gately, Mica Levi, Rabit, Juliana Huxtable, and Björk herself among those reworking the tracks. One Little Indian compiled all 12 remixes into a limited vinyl edition that December, the same month “Stonemilker” appeared as a VR app featuring a 360-degree video and a string-based mix of the song. An acoustic rendition of Vulnicura, Vulnicura Strings, arrived at the close of 2015 and incorporated the viola organista, a keyboard-driven string instrument conceived by Leonardo da Vinci. Vulnicura Live, presenting Björk’s preferred performances of the album’s songs alongside selections from her other records, received a limited release, with wider distribution following in 2016. That June marked the debut of Björk Digital, a touring exhibition gathering the VR videos made for Vulnicura (one of them, “Notget VR,” received the Cannes Lions Grand Prix Award for Real Time Virtual Reality Experience). At the exhibit’s Tokyo stop, Björk performed “Quicksand” during YouTube’s inaugural virtual-reality live stream. Beginning in September, she undertook a small acoustic tour that included London’s Royal Albert Hall and Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall.

In 2017, Björk rejoined Arca for the successor to Vulnicura. The brighter yet still intricate Utopia, incorporating Icelandic and Venezuelan birdsong, an all-female flute section, and lyrics drawn from science fiction and folklore, surfaced in November 2017. Charting worldwide, the album reached number 25 on the U.K. Albums Chart and number 75 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S. Utopia earned a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, marking her eighth consecutive nomination in the category and her 15th overall. The album generated multiple singles and EPs: 2017’s Blissing Me EP included a collaboration with serpentwithfeet; 2018’s Arisen My Senses EP featured remixes by Lanark Artefax, Jlin, and Kelly Lee Owens; and the following year’s Country Creatures EP gathered remixes of “Creatures Features” by Fever Ray and the Knife together with Björk’s remix of the Fever Ray track “This Country.” After the initial run of supporting dates, in 2019 Björk launched the Cornucopia tour, an ambitious live production that combined imagery and projections by director Tobias Gremmler and the choir from the album with additional musical and visual artists. That year, Björk also shared the stage with Arca, performing “Afterwards,” a track that appeared on Arca’s 2020 album KiCk i. She then appeared in Robert Eggers’ 2022 film The Northman, her first screen role since Drawing Restraint 9. That September brought the release of her tenth album Fossora. Named after a Latin term meaning “digging” and shaped by the 2018 passing of her mother, the album merged clarinets, flutes, and strings with choral vocals as well as performances by serpentwithfeet and Emilie Nicolas. The album reached number four on the Icelandic charts and number 11 in the U.K.; in the U.S., it peaked at number 100 on the Billboard 200 and number two on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Another nominee for the Best Alternative Music Album Grammy Award, Fossora claimed the Alternative Album of the Year and Recording Direction of the Year honors at the Icelandic Music Awards. ~ Heather Phares & Stephen Thomas Erlewine