NEWS: Bjork on Drawing Restraint 9

Like their cities, Björk, the emotional extremist, and Barney, the king of abstractions, might seem an odd match. But it’s a fruitful one: Björk’s collaboration with Barney is a fascinating departure for an artist who only last year released her most personal album to date, Medúlla—an album recorded almost entirely a cappella while she was pregnant.

The new soundtrack combines cutting-edge technology with ancient instruments. “It isn’t like, ‘Hello, this is me!’ ” she says, leaning forward so her face is inches from mine. “It’s music that is all around you, and I’ve never done anything like that before.”

Then there’s working with Barney—a radical turnabout after her famously difficult experience with director Lars Von Trier, whose 2000 Dancer in the Dark was the last film in which she appeared. “I couldn’t even compare it,” she explains. “Because of how Matthew uses character, it’s more like sculpture. Me and Matthew actually sculpt each other in the film, we remove each other’s legs [with flensing knives at the film’s climax] and we end up swimming after the ship as two whales. It’s not acting like Dustin Hoffman does.”

Mercie said:
I love Bjork. I don't care what she does, she just pwns. (yes, pwns.)