Bjork takes intimate album to big stage

When Bjork made her latest album, a lush and delicate exploration of the end of a longtime relationship, she decided the apt live setting would be concert halls, and played a small number of shows at Carnegie Hall and other New York venues.

On Saturday evening, the Icelandic experimental pop icon threw her thinking upside down, offering her intimate set to the masses at the Governors Ball festival on New York's Randall's Island.

The effect was at once jarring -- with numerous audience members chatting during her songs of emotional longing or heading to fetch hot dogs and cans of Miller beer -- and explosive, with Bjork rejuvenating her greatest hits through the fervent force of her latest work.

Key to the sound was the electronic artist The Haxan Cloak, who joined Bjork live for the first time and served as a conductor of sorts.

Bjork, as in her concert hall performances, also brought out a 20-strong string chamber orchestra along with a drummer.

Strings form the haunting backbone of her latest album "Vulnicura," which recounts her emotional state as her long relationship with artist Matthew Barney broke down.

But The Haxan Cloak managed to reign over the whole ensemble, offering a dose of abrasive beats to match the "Vulnicura" mood and offering a seamless transition between the new album and "Hunter," off her seminal 1997 album "Homogenic."

Bjork offered a rare performance of the "Homogenic" song "5 Years" -- whose theme of romantic withdrawal foreshadowed "Vulnicura" -- and closed her set with another tale of introspection and despair, "Hyperballad," to which she encouraged the crowd to sing along.

Bjork has described "Vulnicura" as open-heart surgery and a video for her set matched that image, with footage showing a body in pristine nature being sewn up by grass-like threads.

Reinforcing the metaphor of rebirth, Bjork sported a butterfly mask and accompanying wings over her black dress. She skipped with glee around the stage, where fireworks and intimidating balls of fire burst out -- a stage trick she would not dare attempt at Carnegie Hall.

Despite her initial small "Vulnicura" concerts, Bjork is a longtime enthusiast of festivals. She was recently named as the headliner for the Pitchfork festival's European edition in Paris in October.

But she will also emphasize calmer venues this summer, with shows scheduled at Roman-era theaters in Rome and Lyon and a wooded estate in Oxfordshire, England.

In a recent interview with magazine Time Out, Bjork said her songs "get very well supported either in a delicate, beautiful indoor setting or an extreme, outdoor setting like a forest or by the ocean."

- Glitches and anger -

Deadmau5, the Canadian house music star, had planned Governors Ball as the debut for an extravagant light show he will showcase this summer at major festivals around the world.

In the show, Deadmau5 emerged from a structure that resembled a jungle gym before setting off a flurry of projected images and lasers.

But first Deadmau5 had to contend with a technical glitch, with the music stopping over a few minutes at the start of his set, just after an electronic voice repeatedly rallied the crowd by asking, "How are you doing?"

Governors Ball management explained in a statement that the stage had a power problem that was quickly resolved.

Deadmau5 gave a similar account but one filled with profanity, writing on Twitter that he had to make do with alternative gear.

One person who was not impressed was Ryan Adams, the country-influenced alternative rocker, who was playing to a much smaller audience on another stage as Deadmau5's bass bled over.

"Try to make this song on your fucking iPhone," the singer-guitarist told the crowd, as quoted by Billboard magazine.

Adams, known for his strong personality, denounced electronica as "robot music" and part of a "Terminator nightmare."

Deadmau5 replied on Twitter, writing: "I guess Ryan Adams wasn't feeling it. No biggie."

"Nice seeing you again too. *shrug* back to my iPod."
Source: AFP