BJÖRK // THE SSE HYDRO, GLASGOW
Forget the incoming 2020, Björk’s Cornucopia tour is straight from 2200.With invention, experimentation and the natural word as clear themes for the night, attendees were left with their jaws on the floor and with her powerful message about climate change ringing in their ears.
Senses working overtime: BJÖRK performs on her Cornucopia tour ( Getty )
★★★★☆ (4/5)
Icelandic singer Björk grew up in revolutionist surroundings. Her mother campaigned for the planet and Björk spent her early life living in a commune. Aged 11, Björk was offered a recording contract with an Icelandic radio station after her school sent in a copy of her singing “I love to Love” by Tina Charles during a recital. Throughout her teens, Björk celebrated rebellion and formed a couple of punk bands, the most notable being Tappi Tíkarrass in the early 1980s, and a jazz fusion group called Exodus.
At 21, Björk formed the avant-garde group The Sugarcubes. Their experimental sound set Björk on the path she would gallop down – music with no genre and no limitations. They released three studio albums before amicably parting ways in 1992. They reformed in 2006 to mark the 20th anniversary of their debut single ‘Birthday’ but currently work together on their record label Smekkleysa (Bad Taste Ltd).
The dissolution of The Sugarcubes saw Björk travel to London and kickstart her solo career. No stranger to hard work, she quickly released her debut in 1993, aptly name Debut, and toured it extensively. Nine albums in, Björk is showing no signs of losing momentum and her music has evolved to earthy, high-production, layered explosions; and her live performances continued to grow into cinematic, visual experiences that exhilarate the imaginations of her audience
In 2015, the album Vulnicura was released and it has been described by some an electronic, experimental, heart-break album. Björk followed this up with Utopia in 2017; an album which she describes as her “tinder album.” It’s been described as folktronica and is heavily influenced by the natural world. This was the work most celebrated by Björk’s 2019 Cornucopia tour.
The lucky attendees of Björk’s winter show at the Glasgow Hydro were treated to an evening of magnificence and wonder. A merry audience filled the arena and sat in glorious anticipation of what was to come.
To begin, a 17-strong, youth choir took to the stage. The Icelandic Hamrahlid choir performed a series of beautiful, traditional pieces than stunned the audience. The group’s rumbling acapella silenced and Björk graced the stage with the intense, quaking track ‘Family.’
Senses working overtime: BJÖRK performs on her Cornucopia tour ( Getty )
It was clear from the get-go that the evening was as much for the eyes as it was for the ears. Initially, Björk wore a light outfit with large orbs on her shoulders, complete with an eccentric hairstyle. The stage was obscured by screens of fringing which were pulled back to reveal an elaborate stage design. Fungus-like structures covered the stage creating numerous platforms for the performers who were all dressed in costumes that looked like they had bloomed into existence.
Björk sung out the dramatically romantic ‘The Gate’ and the crowd listened with an awe that didn’t leave the building all evening. Her vocals were as fierce as ever; her signature growl passionately escaping as she hit those rough notes. Stripped back tracks like ‘Show Me Forgiveness’ took on new forms with the support of the wonderful band. A flute septuplet danced beautifully throughout almost every number and transformed some of the most well-known pieces. The light-hearted, fan-favourite ‘Venus as a Boy’ saw a reworking from the flautists and the notes soared through the arena.
Never afraid to push boundaries, Björk arranged for some of the most unique instruments to be unveiled. Austrian percussionist Manu Delago left his fungus to come to the front of the stage and perform using a series of bowls placed within a water tanker. Later in the set, a horizontal metal ring was lowered from the ceiling in which Björk stood in the centre. The crowd watched in wonder as four flute players came and each stood at a quarter of the ring and began to play what was revealing itself as a 360° flute. Björk also had a small compartment on stage called the echo chamber that she used with her performers to amplify the reverberation.
The ethereal stage is exactly what Utopia required and everything glorious about the album is enchanted with a display like that. The stunning music videos for tracks like ‘Courtship,’ ‘Loss’ and ‘Tabula Rasa’ that featured warped digital scenes of humanity and nature were shown on a screen behind the band. The main set threw the audience into a collision with the idea of transforming reality and was packed with a soft-spoken outlandishness.
The gentle activist that she is, Björk urged the audience to think of their environmental impact. A video message from 16 year-old climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg was played. Thunberg addressed the crowd and asked them to think of the future that we are creating with a mind open to push boundaries. She spoke of future generations asking why we did not act while we still had time left; the poignancy of her words rung through the silent viewers’ ears like a church bell.
Björk finished the set in a new stunning art-fit - now wearing a bodice which transormed her into a swan-peacock hybrid. She played the transcending track ‘Future Forever.’ It’s an engulfing number and the exulted crowd continued, in hushed astonishment, to hang on every deep breath the singer took. The punk in Björk could never leave them without a twist, so she closed the night by asking for fans to stand before slipping into the alarming ‘Notget.’ As the whole crew of musicians came together, warmth shone out. The show was powerful, moving and ground-breaking. Björk is a lady who is three decades into her solo career and her work continues to flourish to new heights and, live, her shows are masterpieces.
SETLIST: | BJÖRK : THE SSE HYDRO, GLASGOW - 25.11.2019
Island, Farsaelda Fron / Visur Vatnsenda-rosu / Sonnets / Unrealities XI / Cosmogony / Mariukvaeoi
Family
The Gate
Utopia
Arisen My Senses
Show Me Forgiveness
Venus as a Boy
Claimstaker
Isobel
Blissing Me
Flute Solo
Body Memory
Hidden Place
Mouth’s Cradle
Features Creatures
Courtship
Pagan Poetry
Losss
Sue Me
Tabula Rasa
ENCORE:
A message by Swedish Environmental Activist ‘Greta Thunberg’
Future Forever
Notget