Bjork Biography
Björk first came to prominence as one of the lead
vocalists of the avant-pop Icelandic sextet the Sugarcubes, but when she
launched a solo career after the group's 1992 demise, she quickly eclipsed her
old band's popularity. Instead of following in the Sugarcubes' arty guitar rock
pretensions, Björk immersed herself in dance and club culture, working with
many of the biggest names in the genre, including Nellee
Hooper, Underworld,
and Tricky.
Debut,
her first solo effort (except for an Icelandic-only smash released when she was
just 11 years old), not only established her new artistic direction, but it
became an international hit, making her one of the '90s most unlikely stars.
Though the title of Debut
implied that it was Björk's first-ever solo project, she had actually been a
professional vocalist since she was a child. When she was in elementary school
in Reykjavik, she studied classical piano and, eventually, her teachers
submitted a tape of her singing Tina
Charles' "I Love to Love" to Iceland's Radio One. After "I
Love to Love" was aired, a record label called Falkkin offered Björk a
record contract. At the age of 11, her eponymous first album was released; the
record contained covers of several pop songs, including the Beatles' "Fool
on the Hill," and boasted artwork from her mother and guitar work from her
stepfather. Björk
became a hit within Iceland and was not released in any other country.
Björk's musical tastes were changed by the punk
revolution of the late '70s; in 1979, she formed a post-punk group called Exodus
and, in the following year, she sang in Jam 80. In 1981, Björk and Exodus
bassist Jakob
Magnusson formed Tappi
Tikarrass, which released an EP, Bitid Fast I Vitid, on Spor later that
year; it was followed by the full-length Miranda
in 1983. Following Tappi
Tikarrass, she formed the goth-tinged post-punk group KUKL with Einar
Orn Benediktsson. KUKL released two albums, The
Eye (1984) and Holidays in Europe (1986), on Crass Records before the band
metamorphosed into the Sugarcubes in the summer of 1986.
The
Sugarcubes became one of the rare Icelandic bands to break out of their
native country when their debut album, Life's
Too Good, became a British and American hit in 1988. For the next four
years, the group maintained a successful cult following in the U.K. and the U.S.
while they were stars within Iceland. During 1990, Björk recorded a set of jazz
standards and originals with an Icelandic bebop group called Trio Gudmundar
Ingolfssonar. The album, Gling-Gló, was released only in Iceland. By 1992,
tensions between Björk and Einar
had grown substantially, which resulted in the band splitting apart.
Following the breakup of the group, Björk moved to
London, where she began pursuing a dance-oriented solo career. The previous
year, she had sung on 808
State's "Ooops," which sparked her interest in club and house
music. Björk struck up a working relationship with Nellee
Hooper, a producer who had formerly worked with Soul II Soul and Massive
Attack. The first result of their partnership was "Human Behaviour,"
which was released in June of 1993. "Human Behaviour" became a Top 40
hit in the U.K., setting the stage for the surprising number three debut of the
full-length album, Debut.
Throughout 1993, Björk had hit U.K. singles -- including "Venus as a
Boy," "Big Time Sensuality," and the non-LP "Play
Dead," a collaboration with David
Arnold taken from the film Young Americans -- as well as modern rock radio
hits in the U.S., and in both countries she earned rave reviews. At the end of
the year, NME magazine named Debut
the album of the year, while she won International Female Solo Artist and
Newcomer at the BRIT Awards; Debut
went gold in the U.S. and platinum in the U.K.
During 1994, Björk was relatively quiet as she recorded
her second album with Nellee
Hooper, Tricky,
808 State's
Graham
Massey, and Howie
B of Mo' Wax Records; she also released a remix EP, co-wrote the title track
for Madonna's
Bedtime
Stories, and performed on MTV Unplugged that same year. "Army of
Me," the first single from Björk's forthcoming album, was released as a
teaser single in the spring of 1995; it debuted at number ten in the U.K. and
became a moderate alternative rock hit in the U.S. Post,
her second album, was released in June of 1995 to positive reviews; it peaked at
number two in the U.K. and number 32 in the U.S. Post
matched its predecessor in terms of sales and praise, going gold in the U.S. and
helping her earn her second BRIT Award for Best International Female Artist. Post
yielded the British hit singles "Isobel" (number 23), "It's Oh So
Quiet" (number four), and "Hyperballad" (number eight), yet her
singles failed to make much headway on American radio or MTV. Late in 1996,
Björk released Telegram,
an album comprised of radical remixes of the entire Post
album, in the U.K.; Telegram
was released in America in January 1997.
Homogenic,
her most experimental studio effort to date, followed later that same year and
spawned many remix releases in the next few years to follow. In the spring of
2000, she was named Best Actress by jurors at the Cannes Film Festival for her
work in Lars von Trier's Palme d'Or-winning Dancer in the Dark. Selmasongs,
her score for the film, reunited Björk with her Homogenic
collaborator Mark
Bell and arrived in the fall of 2000, just in time for Dancer in the Dark's
U.S. release. The full-length follow-up, Vespertine,
was released one year later. She released a Greatest
Hits collection and the Family
Tree box set late in 2002. After performing a few dates in 2003, Björk
geared up for a busy 2004, which included the release of her all-vocals and
vocal samples-based album Medúlla
and a performance of one of its songs, "Oceania," at the 2004 Summer
Olympics in Athens, Greece. The soundtrack to Drawing
Restraint 9, a film by multimedia artist Matthew
Barney, arrived in 2005 and also featured contributions from Will
Oldham. 2007's Volta
returned to the more playful, percussive side of Björk's music and included
collaborations with Timbaland,
Toumani
Diabaté, Antony
Hegarty, and an all-female Icelandic choir. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All
Music Guide