| Bjork |
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| It's a family affair | ||
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On Monday 4th November,
Björk, in conjunction with One Little Indian Records, releases
a collection of songs that span her solo career to date.
Simply entitled “Björk’s Greatest Hits”, the album has been compiled by a unique web vote, which enabled fans to choose which tracks were their favourites and/or best reflected her career. Interestingly, her biggest hits were not necessarily amongst the most chosen tracks and thus the final track listing truly demonstrates that this album is not simply a commercial entity, but a true representation of Björk’s evolution into the eclectic and pioneering artist we know today. The 15 tracks mark Björk’s progression as an artist and retrospectively reflect on a solo career that has spanned more than a decade, including the release of four solo albums, “Debut”, “Post”, “Homogenic” and most recently “Vespertine”. Tracks include: “All Is Full Of Love”, “Play Dead”, “Human Behaviour” and “Venus As A Boy” amongst others. To compliment the release of the “Greatest Hits”, Björk will also release a special box set entitled “Family Tree” comprising six CDs of her favourite songs which in Björk’s words represent “the story of how I got to where I am today and in my musical words to say how I developed as a musician”. “Family Tree”, the six CD box set, will also be available from November 7th and will include tracks, some previously unreleased, taken from Björk’s whole career, not just her solo career. The “Family Tree” project will include one CD on which Björk compiles her own 12-track ‘greatest hits’, and a series of 3” mini-CDs divided into Roots, Beats and Strings collections. It includes tracks from Björk’s career which demonstrate where she “took the biggest leaps as a songwriter”. The two mini ‘Roots’ discs will together comprise 10 tracks, including some Sugarcubes tracks and Sídasta Egì, a piece Björk wrote on the flute when she was 15. The ‘Beats’ CD, which comprises 4 tracks, displays the very first experiments in rhythm Björk did with Graham Massey and Mark Bell after leaving The Sugarcubes and gives the first hints at the importance electronica was to take in her solo work. |
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| Last but by no means least, are two ‘Strings’
CD’s on which Björk, for the first time, confronts and accepts
the formal musical training she received as a child. These discs feature
the classical arrangements of Björk’s songs by the Brodsky
Quartet first heard at the breathtaking shows they played together
at the Union Chapel, London, in 2000.
The “Family Tree” box set will be packaged in a custom made transparent rose coloured plastic case, ingeniously configured to house the six disc set. The box will also include a 16 page lyric book, a map guiding purchasers through the “Family Tree” collection and individual packaging for each branch of the tree. This unique package, and that of the “Greatest Hits”, have both been designed by the acclaimed Parisian designers ‘M/M’, and feature illustrations and photos by the Icelandic artist Gabriella Fridriksdöttir. The “Family Tree” collection will be the first collection released of it’s type and promises to provide the definitive insight into the many facets which make Björk the truly individual, enigmatic and experimental artist she is. It will provide fans and collectors alike with a fascinating insight into the many different musical paths she has taken and into the influences and inspirations that have helped make her the artist she is today. For Björk, no “Greatest Hits” album could be released without this sort of back up and the “Family Tree” promises to fill in all the gaps that the release of a simple “Greatest Hits” CD could never provide. The albums will be released simultaneously
on One Little Indian Records on November 7th to represent the career
of an artist who has continuously set precedents and broken boundaries
and become the icon we know today. |
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