Vespertine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the term used in reference to phenomena observed during the evening hours, see Vespertine (biology).
Vespertine
Studio album by Björk
Released 27 August 2001
Recorded 2000–2001
Genre Electronica, ethereal wave, downtempo, musique concrète, experimental
Length 55:33
Label One Little Indian
Producer Björk, Thomas Knak, Martin Console, Marius de Vries
Björk chronology
Selmasongs
(2000)		 Vespertine
(2001)		 Greatest Hits
(2002)
Singles from Vespertine
  1. "Hidden Place"
    Released: August 2001
  2. "Pagan Poetry"
    Released: November 2001
  3. "Cocoon"
    Released: March 2002

Vespertine is the fifth studio album by the Icelandic recording artist Björk, released on 27 August 2001. On this album, Björk creates a quiet, introverted world of microbeats and personal lyrics. On the cover she can be seen wearing the swan dress (designed by Marjan Pejoski) that caused a stir at the 2001 Academy Awards.

The album yielded the singles "Hidden Place", "Pagan Poetry" and "Cocoon". The album's lead single, "Hidden Place", is the only single from the album to have charted in the United States.[1]

Contents

[edit] Album information

Björk uses an array of sampled objects to create beats and soundscapes in a number of songs on Vespertine, including shuffling cards on "Cocoon" and "Hidden Place"; snow being walked upon on "Aurora", and ice being cracked and smashed on "Frosti". Vespertine is Björk's longest album, at 55:33. Hidden Place", "Pagan Poetry" and "Cocoon" were released as singles from the album. "It's Not Up to You" may have been meant to be the fourth single—a sticker on the CD case proclaims "features ‹Hidden Place› and ‹It's Not Up to You›"—but never made it to release, presumably because of the birth of Björk's daughter Isadora.

The lyrics to "An Echo, a Stain" are based on Sarah Kane's play Crave. Björk adapted the lyrics of "Sun in My Mouth" from the poem "I Will Wade Out" by E. E. Cummings. The word "sea-girls" is changed to "seagulls", and the last few lines of the poem are omitted. The instrumentals in "Heirloom" is a song by Console entitled "Crabcraft". Several CD track naming programs, such as Gracenote, label the song "Heirloom" as "Crabcraft" when the album is placed inside a computer. The lyrics of "Harm of Will" were written by Harmony Korine and are allegedly about Will Oldham.

The last track on the album, "Unison", uses a sample of St Paul's Cathedral Choir singing a segment of Patrick Gowers' Viri Galilaei recorded in 1994. The initial title for the album was Domestika. A song titled "Domestica" (originally titled "Lost Keys") was included as a B-side on the "Pagan Poetry" single. Björk has stated that she decided to call the album "Vespertine" instead of "Domestika" because the new title dealt with the prayer aspect of the album, which she wanted to note, while she felt that "Domestika" dealt too literally with the domestic element.

On 22 August 2008, Björk wrote an open letter on her official website correcting a long-standing mistake—that Valgeir Sigurðsson has over the years been credited with writing the instrumentals for the album. She explained that, in fact, he had been only an engineer and programmer on some of the tracks on the album and speculated that the reason for the mistake was either due to sexism in the music industry, ignorance between the roles of engineers and programmers or because herself nor Sigurðsson had ever bothered to correct it.[2]

[edit] Early leaked versions

Early versions of the album were leaked onto the internet with some differences to the final release. Tracks were in a different order, the song "It's in Our Hands" was originally included (replaced by the instrumental "Frosti" on the final version), the song "It's Not Up to You" was not included, and some tracks appeared under different titles, including "Pagan Poetry" ("Blueprint"), "Cocoon" ("Mouth") and "Heirloom" ("Crabcraft" or "New"). Also, a remix of "An Echo, a Stain" was included.

The original track listing was:[3]

  1. "Aurora"
  2. "Pagan Poetry"
  3. "Heirloom"
  4. "An Echo, a Stain"
  5. "Harm of Will"
  6. "Hidden Place"
  7. "It's in Our Hands"
  8. "Cocoon"
  9. "Sun in My Mouth"
  10. "Undo"
  11. "Unison"

[edit] Hidden artwork

The CD inlay card contains drawings on both sides. Since the back of the CD jewel case is made of white plastic (with a sticker listing the tracks), only the inner side drawing is visible. To look at the other side's drawing, the CD packaging must be disassembled.

[edit] Track listing

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Hidden Place"   Björk 5:29
2. "Cocoon"   Björk, Thomas Knak 4:27
3. "It's Not Up to You"   Björk 5:09
4. "Undo"   Björk, Knak 5:38
5. "Pagan Poetry"   Björk 5:14
6. "Frosti" (Interlude) Björk 1:59
7. "Aurora"   Björk 4:39
8. "An Echo, a Stain"   Björk, Guy Sigsworth 4:04
9. "Sun in My Mouth"   Björk, E.E. Cummings, Sigsworth 2:40
10. "Heirloom"   Björk, Console 5:12
11. "Harm of Will"   Björk, Sigsworth, Harmony Korine 4:37
12. "Unison"   Björk 6:48
Sample credits

[edit] Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic (88/100) [4]
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4.5/5 stars[5]
Robert Christgau A−[6]
Entertainment Weekly B+ [7]
The A.V. Club (very favorable)[8]
Blender 4/5 stars[9]
Uncut 4/5 stars[10]
NME (8/10)[11]
Pitchfork Media (7.2/10)[12]
Slant Magazine 4/5 stars[13]
Rolling Stone 4.5/5 stars[14]
Tiny Mix Tapes 4.5/5 stars[15]
About.com 5/5 stars[16]
Yahoo! 9/10 stars[17]
Alternative Press 8/10 stars[18]

Vespertine was widely acclaimed by music critics. Both Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club and David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine named Vespertine Björk's best album to date. Allmusic stated that "Vespertine isn't merely lovely; it proves that in Björk's hands, intimacy can be just as compelling as louder emotions", while Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine said the album is "nothing short of brilliance." Ian Wade also praised the album awarding it 9 stars out of 10. A more lukewarm review came from Pitchfork Media who thought that "While undeniably beautiful, Vespertine fails to give electronic music the forward push it received on Björk's preceding albums" and that the album "is riddled with sameness."

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100, Vespertine currently holds a rating of 88/100, indicating universal acclaim.[4] The album is also ranked No.55 on Metacritic's 200 best-reviewed albums.[19] It was also nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 2002 Grammy Awards. Recently music webzine Drowned in Sound named Vespertine the number-one album of the last six years not to garner press attention.[20] Stylus Magazine placed it 36th on their 'Top 50 Albums: 2000–2005'.[21] Vespertine was also selected as one of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[22] The record was also rated by Slant Magazine as the 3rd best of the 2000s.[23]

Online music magazine Pitchfork Media placed Vespertine at number 92 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.[24]

The album peaked at number eight on the UK Albums Chart and at number 19 on the U.S. Billboard 200 with sales of 75,000 copies. It also reached number one in Spain, France and Norway and had sold two million copies by the end of 2001.

The album was placed at number 67 on the Rolling Stone magazine Best 100 Albums of the decade released at the end of the year in 2009.[25]

[edit] Samples
"Unison"
"Unison" by Björk
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

[edit] Comments by Björk about Vespertine

“ Vespertine is little insects rising from the ashes. ”


“ It sounds like a winter record. If you wake up in the middle of the night, and you go out in the garden, everything's going on out there that you wouldn't know about. That's the mood I'm trying to get. Snow owls represent that very well. ”


“ I was bored of big beats. I'd listened a lot of it, to drill'n'bass, a lot of Rephlex stuff, the most mental cut-up shit that you could find. This is more electronic folk music, music for the home. It's corny to make a soundtrack for making a sandwich, but I quite like it. For so long I wanted to whisper. It was a watercolour as opposed to an oil. But 'Pagan Poetry' was the last song I did, and I was hungry for something physical again. ”


“ I was collecting together all the noises that I know that are like hibernating and that sound like the inside of your head. I guess 'Vespertine' for me was going really, really, really internal and trying to make music with huffs and whispering and music boxes. ”


[edit] Personnel

  • Björk – producer, programming, beat programming, basslines, string arrangements, choir arrangements, harp arrangements, music box arrangements, vocal editing
  • Valgeir Sigurðsson – programming, beat programming, Pro Tools, engineer
  • Martin Gretschmann aka Console – producer, programming
  • Jake Davies – programming, Pro Tools, engineer
  • Matthew Herbert – programming
  • Leigh Jamieson – Pro Tools
  • Thomas Knak – production, programming
  • Jan "Stan" Kybert – Pro Tools
  • Matmos – programming, beat programming
  • Vince Mendoza – string arrangements, choir arrangements, orchestration
  • Zeena Parkins – harp, harp arrangements
  • Jack Perron – adaptation to music box
  • Guy Sigsworth – programming, beat programming, celeste, celeste arrangements, clavichord, clavichord arrangements, choir arrangements
  • Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing
  • Damian Taylor – programming, beat programming, Pro Tools
  • Caryl Thomas – harp
  • Marius de Vries – producer, programming, beat programming
  • M/M (Paris) – art direction, design and illustration
  • Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin – photography
  • Patrick Gowers – Composer of Vocal and Organ Arrangements on Unison
  • St. Paul's Cathedral Choir, conducted by John Scott – Choir on Unison

[edit] Charts and certifications

[edit] Charts

Country Peak
position
Australia 9
Austria 5
Germany 3
Spain 1
Canada 2
Finland 3
France 1
Italy 2
Japan 6
New Zealand 32
Norway 1
Poland 6
Sweden 7
Switzerland 3
UK Albums Chart 8
U.S. Billboard 200 19
U.S. Billboard Top Electronic Albums 1

[edit] Certifications

Region Provider Certification(s)
Canada CRIA Gold[26]
France SNEP Gold[27]
United Kingdom BPI Silver[28]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Top Music Charts - Hot 100 - Billboard 200 - Music Genre Sales[dead link]
  2. ^ "bjork.com / news". Pinnacle.bjork.com. 2008-08-22. http://pinnacle.bjork.com/news/?id=854;year=2008. Retrieved 2011-09-29. 
  3. ^ "Free Music Downloads : Download Free Mp3s Legally from our website, Listen to Music Online". Bjork-art1559.mp3-2000.com. http://bjork-art1559.mp3-2000.com/#. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  4. ^ a b Vespertine at Metacritic Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  5. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r546264
  6. ^ "CG: Björk". Robert Christgau. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=149&name=Bj%F6rk. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  7. ^ http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,171599,00.html
  8. ^ Phipps, Keith (19 April 2002). "Björk: Vespertine | Music | Music Review". The A.V. Club. http://avclub.com/content/node/12875. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  9. ^ [1][dead link]
  10. ^ Sep 2001, p.104
  11. ^ "NME Album Reviews - Bjork: Vespertine". Nme.Com. 2005-09-12. http://www.nme.com/reviews/bjork/5925. Retrieved 2011-09-29. 
  12. ^ "Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Björk: Vespertine". Pitchforkmedia.com. 31 August 2001. http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/15464-vespertine. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  13. ^ "Slant Review". http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/music_review.asp?ID=17. Retrieved 2011-10-07. 
  14. ^ [2][dead link]
  15. ^ http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/bj%C3%B6rk-vespertine
  16. ^ http://altmusic.about.com/od/2000s/fr/bjork.htm
  17. ^ "Bjork Vespertine Album Review, New album reviews and latest album releases on Yahoo! Music". Uk.launch.yahoo.com. http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/l_reviews_a/21556.html. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  18. ^ Oct 2001, p.77
  19. ^ "Highest and Lowest Scoring Music and Albums at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  20. ^ Diver, Mike (31 October 2006). "Features – DiS is 6: Our 66, the top six". Drowned in Sound. http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/1254995. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  21. ^ "The Top 50 Albums: 2000–2005 – Article". Stylus Magazine. http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1430. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  22. ^ "Outline Page". Rocklistmusic.co.uk. http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/steveparker/1001albums.htm. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  23. ^ Slant staff (1 February 2010). "Best of the Aughts 10-1". Slant Magazine. http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/feature/best-of-the-aughts-albums/215/page_10. Retrieved 16 June 2010. 
  24. ^ Pitchfork staff (30 September 2009). "The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s: 100-51". Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7708-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-100-51/. Retrieved 1 October 2009. 
  25. ^ [3][dead link]
  26. ^ "Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA): Gold & Platinum". Cria.ca. http://www.cria.ca/cert_db_search.php. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  27. ^ "Disque en France". Disque en France. http://www.disqueenfrance.com/fr/page-259165.xml?year=2001&type=8. Retrieved 7 July 2011. 
  28. ^ "Certified Awards Search". http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-07. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Tragic Epilogue by Anti-Pop Consortium		 The Wire's Record of the Year
2000		 Succeeded by
Murray Street by Sonic Youth
Björk
Studio Albums
Soundtracks
Compilations
Box Sets
Remix Albums
Video Albums
Other Albums
Singles
Promotional singles
Other songs
Bands
Films
Related articles
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vespertine&oldid=479177748"
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages