| Orchestra or Band | Aurora Orchestra (strings) |
| Set List | 'Stonemilker',
'Lionsong',
'History of Touches',
'Black Lake',
'Family',
'Notget'
I'NTERVAL
'Aurora',
'I've Seen It All',
'Joga',
'Pagan Poetry',
'Quicksand',
'Mouth Mantra'
ENCORE
'The Anchor Song',
'Pluto' |
| Performance Notes | This September, Icelandic icon Björk will make her headline debut on the world-famous Royal Albert Hall stage.
Over Björks incredible three-decade career she has developed a unique, avant-garde musical style, drawing on an eclectic range of influences and genres. This special, one-off performance will be her only UK show this year, coinciding with the European premier of Björk Digital at Somerset House (1 September 23 October 2016) an exhibition of digital and video works, resulting from Björks collaborations with some of the finest visual artists and programmers in the world.
"Arriving on stage in a white miniskirt, a yellow cloak with fibre-optic tassels and an antennae-clad mask that made her look like a fashion-conscious queen of the ants, she began Stonemilker. "Show me emotional respect," she demanded, her elemental voice unchanged since it first entranced audiences two decades earlier, making small, choreographed movements as the strings rose and fell. It was highly personal and highly theatrical at the same time.
The second half of the concert brought a new outfit - something resembling an enormous Elizabethan ruff, a lampshade and an egg timer - and a handful of older songs...
By the encore Bjork was feeling relaxed enough to come to the stage with a glass of champagne and implore everyone to dance to Pluto, a techno floor-filler from 1997....The roar of the crowd was so persistent that Bjork returned five minutes after the concert ended just to say thank you."
(The Times, 22 September 2016)
"I have not witnessed an audience response at the Royal Albert Hall quite as rapt and intense as for maverick Icelandic chanteuse Björk. The standing crowd on the arena floor pressed against stage barriers in silent awe, as if bearing witness to a religious visitation.
...With the music stripped of the electronica that gave the album its rhythmic spine, the listener was forced to confront the dark heart of the material. It was like witnessing one side of a vicious domestic dispute and at times had the slightly perverse effect of making me feel sorry for the other party. The tension between the rawness of the emotion, the alluring beauty of the string arrangements and the formal elegance of the classical presentation was utterly hypnotic.
...when Björk finally left the stage after an exultant version of Pluto, the crowd finally broke its rapt spell, stamping the floor and taking up the songs ooh-oooh-ooh-ooh chant, refusing to move even after the house lights came on, until the Icelander relented and returned, alone, to thank London, my second musical home."
(The Telegraph, 22 September 2016)
Audience members included Kylie Pentelow (newsreader), Lisa Eldridge (make-up artist) and David Walliams (comedian, author).
Full house.
The performance included flashing lights, and strobe and smoke effects.
"happy to tell you i will be singing in royal albert hall on the fall equinox. i know. it is bragging. spoiled brat."
(Bjork, Twitter, 19 July 2016) |
| Related Archival Material | Digital Setlist,
Digital Photographs |