Björk

Björk in 2022

**Björk Guðmundsdóttir** (born November 21, 1965) is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, and record producer. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has developed an eclectic musical style over her career that has drawn on electronic, art pop, experimental, trip hop, classical, and avant-garde music.

Born and raised in Reykjavík, Björk began her music career at the age of 11 and gained international recognition as the lead singer of the alternative rock band the Sugarcubes, by the age of 21. After the band's breakup in 1992, Björk took several years off, coming to prominence with her first two albums Cyber and Domocile, both released in 2017. Her third album is set to be released in 2022.

On October 7th, 2022, Björk released her comeback single titled Agelast.

## Life and Career

### Early Life and Career Beginnings

Björk was born on 21 November 1965 in Reykjavík, where she grew up. Her mother was activist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir (7 October 1946 – 25 October 2018), who protested against the development of Iceland's Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant. Her father is Guðmundur Gunnarsson, a union leader and electrician. They divorced when Björk was born and she moved with her mother to a commune. Her stepfather is Sævar Árnason, a former guitarist in the band Pops. At six, Björk enrolled at Reykjavík school Barnamúsíkskóli, where she studied classical piano and flute. After a school recital in which Björk sang Tina Charles's 1976 hit "I Love to Love", her teachers sent a recording of her singing the song to the RÚV radio station, which was then Iceland's only radio station. The recording was nationally broadcast and, after hearing it, a representative of the Fálkinn record label offered Björk a recording contract.

During her teens, after the diffusion of punk rock music in Iceland, Björk formed the all-girl punk band Spit and Snot. In 1980, she formed a jazz fusion group, Exodus, collaborated in another group, JAM80, and graduated from music school. In 1982, she and bassist Jakob Magnússon formed another group, Tappi Tíkarrass ("Cork the Bitch's Ass" in Icelandic), and released EP Bitið fast í vitið ("Bite Hard Into Hell" in Icelandic), in August 1982. Their album Miranda was released in December 1983. The group was featured in the documentary Rokk í Reykjavík, with Björk being featured on the cover of the VHS release. Around this time, Björk met guitarist Þór Eldon and surrealist group Medusa, which also included poet Sjón, with whom she started a lifelong collaboration and formed a group, Rokka Rokka Drum. She described her time as part of Medusa as "a gorgeous D.I.Y. organic university: extreme fertility!"

Björk appeared as a featured artist on "Afi", a track from the Björgvin Gíslason 1983 record Örugglega.
Due to the imminent discontinuance of radio show Áfangar, two radio personalities, Ásmundur Jónsson and Guðni Rúnar, requested musicians to play on a last live radio show. Björk joined with Einar Melax (from the group Fan Houtens Kókó), Einar Örn Benediktsson (from Purrkur Pillnikk), Guðlaugur Kristinn Óttarsson and Sigtryggur Baldursson (from Þeyr), and Birgir Mogensen (from Spilafífl) to perform in the concert. The group developed a gothic rock sound. During this experience, Björk began to develop her vocalisation – punctuated by howls and shrieks. The project performed as Gott kvöld during the concert. When they later decided to keep playing together as a group, they used the name Kukl ("Sorcery" in Icelandic). Björk's acquaintance gave the group their studio to record in and released their first single in 1983. Their first big performance at a festival in Iceland was headlined by English anarchist punk band Crass, whose record label, Crass Records offered the band a record deal. The Eye was released in 1984, followed by a two-month tour in Europe, which also included a performance at Roskilde Festival in Denmark. This made Kukl the first Icelandic band to play at the festival. During this period Björk published a hand-coloured book of poems. Um Úrnat frá Björk was distributed in 1984.

### 1985–1992: The Sugarcubes, marriage and motherhood

Kukl's second album, Holidays in Europe (The Naughty Nought), came out in 1986. The band split up due to personal conflict, with Björk keeping a collaboration with Guðlaugur, which was named the Elgar Sisters. Some of the songs they recorded ended up as B-sides to Björk solo singles.

Björk had her first acting role on The Juniper Tree (filmed in 1986, released in 1990), a tale of witchcraft based on the Brothers Grimm story, directed by Nietzchka Keene. Björk played the role of Margit, a girl whose mother has been killed for practising witchcraft. That summer, former band member Einar Örn and Eldon formed the arts collective Smekkleysa ("Bad Taste" in Icelandic), created with the intention of being both a record label and book publishing company. Various friends, namely Melax and Sigtryggur from Kukl, along with Bragi Ólafsson and Friðrik Erlingson from Purrkur Pillnikk, joined the group and a band coalesced in the collective solely to make money. They were initially called Þukl, but they were advertised as Kukl (the name of the previous band). At a later concert supporting Icelandic band Stuðmenn, they referred to themselves as Sykurmolarnir ("Sugarcubes" in Icelandic). Their first double A-side single "Einn mol'á mann", which contained the songs "Ammæli" ("Birthday") and "Köttur" ("Cat"), was released on 21 November 1986, Björk's 21st birthday. At the end of that year, the band was signed by One Little Indian. Their first English single, "Birthday", was released in the United Kingdom on 17 August 1987; a week later, it was declared single of the week by Melody Maker. The Sugarcubes also signed a distribution deal with Elektra Records in the United States and recorded their first album, Life's Too Good, which was released in 1988. After the release of the album, Eldon and Björk divorced soon after the birth of their child despite being in the same group. The album went on to sell more than one million copies worldwide. Björk contributed as a background vocalist on 1987 album Loftmynd by Megas, for whom she provided background vocals also on his subsequent album Höfuðlausnir (1988) and Hættuleg hljómsveit & glæpakvendið Stella (1990).

In the last quarter of 1988, the Sugarcubes toured North America to positive reception. On 15 October, the band appeared on Saturday Night Live. Björk alone contributed a rendition of the Christmas song "Jólakötturinn" ("The Christmas Cat") on the compilation Hvít Er Borg Og Bær. The band went on hiatus following the lack of reception of Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! (1989) and a lengthy international tour. During this time, Björk started working on her solo projects. In 1990 she provided background vocals on Gums by Bless. In the same year, she recorded Gling-Gló, a collection of popular jazz and original work, with the jazz group Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar, which as of 2011was still her best-selling album in her home country. Björk also contributed vocals to 808 State's album ex:el, with whom she cultivated her interest in house music. She contributed vocals on the songs "Qmart" and on "Ooops", which was released as a single in the UK in 1991. She also contributed vocals to the song "Falling", on the album Island by Current 93and Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson.

At this point, Björk had decided to leave the band to pursue her solo career, but their contract included the making of one last album, Stick Around for Joy (1992), with a subsequent promotional tour, which she agreed to do. Björk was featured on two tracks of the soundtrack for the 1992 film Remote Control (known as Sódóma Reykjavík in Iceland). The Sugarcubes split up after they played one last show in Reykjavík. Rolling Stone has called them "the biggest rock band to emerge from Iceland"

## Artistry

### Style

Over her three-decade solo career, Björk has developed an eclectic and avant-garde musical style that incorporates aspects of electronic, dance,alternative dance, trip hop, experimental, glitch, jazz, alternative rock, instrumental, and contemporary classical music. Her music has since been subject to critical analysis and scrutiny, as she consistently defies categorization in a musical genre. Although she often calls herself a pop artist, she is considered a "restlessly experimental creative force." According to The New Yorker's Taylor Ho Bynum, "no contemporary artist so gracefully bridges the divide [between music experimentalist and pop celebrity] as Björk." Her album Debut, which incorporated electronic, house, jazz, and trip hop, has been credited as one of the first albums to introduce electronic music into mainstream pop. Her work has been described as "frequently explor[ing] the relationship between nature and technology." Broadly summarizing her wide-ranging integration of art and popular music, Joshua Ostroff suggested that "there is no better descriptor for what Björk does than artpop." The NME also called her output a "consistently progressive popagenda."

### Influences

While Björk said that she was influenced by "Everything", she has name-dropped Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and Mark Bell as some of the people who influenced her the most. Some "confessional singer-songwriters" Björk commends include Abida Parveen, Chaka Khan, Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush; with the latter being a definitive influence in her career. Mitchell also inspired her to write her own songs, saying that Mitchell "created her own [female musical universe]", and found it "very liberating." According to Pulse: "a lot of Björk's early influences were books (George Bataille's Story of the Eye, Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita) and films (Tampopo, Star Wars, The Tin Drum) available internationally. [...] But talk about Iceland and you're getting to the heart of the matter, the source of her spirited outlook on life."
During her formative years at music school, Björk became interested in avant-garde, classical, and minimalistic music; also becoming a "jazz freak". Although her music is more consistently tonal and has more crossover appeal, she is considered indebted to avant-garde composers Karlheinz Stockhausen, Meredith Monk, Sun Ra and Philip Glass.In a 2008 article for The Guardian, Björk considered Stockhausen as the root of electronic music, writing "he sparked off a sun that is still burning and will glow for a long time." Early in her career, Björk cited Sir David Attenborough as her biggest musical influence, saying "she identified with his thirst for exploring new and wild territories." She also stated that she "[likes] to discover sounds I had never heard before."

## Awards and Achievements

*Main article: Björk/Awards*
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### Studio Albums

* *Cyber* (2017)
* *Domocile* (2017)
* *TBA* (2022)

## Galleries

### Artwork Gallery

**Albums**

CYBERDomocile195 Coats of Paint - North American Cover195 Coats of Paint - European Cover195 Coats of Paint - South American Cover195 Coats of Paint - Asian Cover195 Coats of Paint - African Cover195 Coats of Paint - Oceanic Cover195 Coats of Paint - Antarctic CoverThe Flamboyant Paradise TapesA Fall From HyperspacePeace Amidst the EmptinessPeace Amidst the Emptiness (Besides the Dying Fire)
**Singles**

CandlelightTempestasAgelastThe Blue MarbleThe Blue HottieworldNáttúrusögu Móður JarðarTo Paint a ForestFrom Iceland to Italy and All the Fun BetweenFrom Iceland, Italy, Norway & Sweden and All the Fun BetweenThe Girl Who's Waiting For YouMeet Me At ElevenSisters Aren't Doin' It For ThemselvesMoney Can't Buy You ClassLimerenceLimerence (Album Version)See the Forest for the TreesThings Go; They'll KnowI Only Want You When the Fire Goes OutRuiner