Björk closed out her month-long, ten-show Biophilia NYC residency last night at Roseland Ballroom. The residency also included shows at the New York Hall of Science, which collaborated with Björk on a Biophilia education series on the scientific concepts at the core of the album. One such concept is DNA, in the song "Hollow," the video for which has premiered on NPR's All Songs Considered. "It takes an artist like Björk to turn the complex process of DNA replication and transcription into something as simple and beautiful as a pop song," says NPR. "For the video of her song 'Hollow,' Björk has collaborated with biomedical animator Drew Berry to create a partly-scientific representation of the haunting song." Watch it here.
Björk closed out her month-long, ten-show New York City residency featuring music from her latest album, Biophilia, with a fifth and final show at Roseland Ballroom. The Roseland shows had been preceded by five performances at the New York Hall of Science, which also collaborated with Björk on a three-week-long Biophilia education series featuring interactive science and music workshops leading area middle-school students on an intensive study of the scientific concepts at the core of the album's songs, including crystalline structures, lunar phases, viruses, and more.
On Biophilia, Björk collaborated with app developers, scientists, writers, inventors, musicians, and instrument makers to create a unique multimedia exploration of the universe and its physical forces—particularly those where music, nature, and technology meet. The project is inspired by and explores these relationships between musical structures and natural phenomena, from the atomic to the cosmic, not least on the song "Hollow," the video for which premiered on NPR's All Songs Considered blog today and can be seen below.
"It takes an artist like Björk to turn the complex process of DNA replication and transcription into something as simple and beautiful as a pop song," writes NPR's Dan Raby. "For the video of her song 'Hollow' ... Björk has collaborated with biomedical animator Drew Berry to create a partly-scientific representation of the haunting song."
Read more and see what Björk and director Drew Berry have to say about it at npr.org.
Watch the "Hollow" video here:
Another such tie between science and the music of Biophilia is in the custom-made instruments Björk had built for the project, including pitched Tesla coils and a one-of-a-kind gravity harp. During the Biophilia New York residency, The New Yorker's Andrew Marantz met with Andy Cavatorta, the inventor of the gravity harp, to learn how Cavatorta came to be involved with the project, how the massive instrument was built, and how it works to accompany Björk on the Biophilia tune "Solstice." Read the article at newyorker.com.
There's more Biophilia, of sorts, for New York fans this week, as Björk will discuss the project and the role of repetition, authorship, and iteration with Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson at The Armory Show's Open Forum. The event takes place at Pier 94 in New York City Thursday afternoon. For more information, go to thearmoryshow.com.
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