Well known for her creative compositional style and distinct singing, Björk's recording career began in 1977 at the age of 11, when she released (as Björk Guðmundsdóttir) her first album, while studying piano and flute at music school. Although the album became platinum, she refused to make another disco-folk follow-up and, at the age of 13, formed her first short-lived punk band, all-girl alliance Spit and Snot (Saliva and Phlegm), where she played the drums. Later on she was involved in projects such as Exodus and Jam 80, all of which without known record releases…
Biophilia Live is a 2014 British concert film by Björk, directed and edited by Peter Strickland and Nick Fenton. The film features Björk performing tracks from her Biophilia Tour, which started in June 2011 and ended in September 2013…
Vessel is the first live long-form video by Icelandic musician Björk, directed by Stéphane Sednaoui and produced by Elektra Entertainment. It was released in VHS on 5 September 1994, by One Little Indian, with a DVD reissue taking place on 13 May 2003…
Originally, Tricky was a member of the Wild Bunch, a Bristol-based rap troupe that eventually metamorphosed into Massive Attack during the early '90s. Tricky provided pivotal raps on Massive Attack's groundbreaking 1992 album, Blue Lines. The following year, he released his debut single, "Aftermath." Before he recorded "Aftermath," he met a teenage vocalist named Martina, who would become his full-time musical collaborator; all albums released under Tricky's name feature her contributions…
Nordic Affect is an Icelandic quartet consisting of four women, all of whom also sing, and at least one of whom, Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir, is also a composer, writing the title work He(a)r (the title is a pun on the words "hear," "her," and the Icelandic word "hér," which means "hear"). That work has a prominent spoken-word part, and it's deployed not in a continuous performance but as a frame for the other works, on alternating tracks. With the composer as Nordic Affect's violinst, one is entitled to assume that she was on board with this idea, and it forms an instantly appealing contrast with the other music…
The fourth of Motorpsycho’s expanded archival sets revisits 1997’s Angels and Daemons at Play – a chronological and developmental follow-on from the earlier Blissard set…
The running joke goes like this: as soon as Alanis Morissette suffered a heartbreak like she did prior to Jagged Little Pill, she would once again write lyrics as vitriolic as confessional as that 1995 breakthrough. As any tabloid follower knows – and really, in the new millennium we all follow the tabloids whether we like it or not – Alanis split from fiancé Ryan Reynolds after the release of 2004's So-Called Chaos, an album that floated joyously on her newfound love, so it's no great stretch to see its 2008 follow-up, Flavors of Entanglement, as its opposite, a classic breakup record…
Certainly not the style of music McLachlan is known for, but Remixed is an album that will reach a new audience demographic that can at the very least appreciate her gorgeous voice, while serving as a continuing showcase for popular remixers and DJs now playing at a club near you…
The voice of the female singer Annisette is simply unique: a strange mix of Björk, Janis Joplin and Sade. Annisette sings with a pain, a scream a wailing and a strength that is so special that a reference to anybody is impossible and needless!…
One of the most successful pop/classical fusion projects, Gregorian mixes well-known pop and rock songs with Gregorian chants. Overseen by producer Frank Peterson, co-founder of Michael Cretu's Enigma outfit, Gregorian's first album, Masters of Chant, released in 1999 (an early 1991 Peterson album released under the name Gregorian isn't counted among the group's official releases, but already employs the same aesthetic), became a smash hit throughout Europe, entering the Top Ten in nine different countries…