Volta (Album)
Universal Music Atlantic Records Polydor
Volta is the sixth solo album by Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk. An inspiration for the album was the tsunami disaster in Indonesia on 26 December 2004. Was released in Germany on 9 May 2007.
The name of the album
The name of the album Volta refers to the Italian naturalist and inventor Alessandro Volta, the Volta River and Reservoir in Northwest Africa, as well as the Volta - dance from the 16th century.
Track list
Cooperation
On the album Björk has collaborated with numerous artists, including again the Icelandic author and poet Sjón, an Icelandic producer, as well as Mark Bell has repeatedly collaborated with Björk. For the first time created a song with the American producer Timbaland, who produced, inter alia, the beats of the single " Earth Intruders ". Furthermore, listening to the album, the singer, songwriter and pianist Antony Hegarty, the two drummer Brian Chippendale and Chris Corsano, the Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté and the Chinese pipa player Min Xiao -Fen. The Brass Interior of "The Icelandic Wonder Brass" on trumpet and flugelhorn complement the orchestra.
Singles
- Earth Intruders (4/ 07)
- Innocence ( 7/ 07)
- Declare Independence ( 1/08)
- Wanderlust (6/ 08)
- The Dull Flame of Desire (9/ 08)
Artwork
On the cover of the album shows Björk, in a colorful sculpture which symbolizes the earth and thus captures the concept of the album.
It was designed by the German artist Bernhard Wilhem, in collaboration with the design agency "m / m
Tour
With the album Björk was 2007/2008 a total of 18 months on world tour. Underneath she has performed in Iceland, Canada, the USA, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland and Belgium. The track list included doing about 40 songs. For the first time on the tour was the Reactable, a modular synthesizer with a tangible user interface that was developed by a group of digital instrument maker at the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. From this unique electronic musical instrument, there was at the time the world only two copies, of which Björk had borrowed for the Volta tour one. Meanwhile, the Reactable is also produced commercially and is available, inter alia, as a software tool for smartphones. Also on the tour were also more experimental musical instruments, such as the Tenori -on by Yamaha and the Lemur, then one of the first multi-touch controller.
Criticism
" In contrast to the filigree work that she has done with countless layers of beats and sounds to> Vespertine ', the beats sound on > Volta < much organic and impulsive. More wood, more beats of drums right, more tribal sounds. "
" Björk would release a danceable and optimistic album, but who now expects itchy party people music, is obviously ( and thankfully) wrong. Just to successful those complex expression, we unexpectedly to overthrow just in quiet moments over cliffs, only to be grabbed and pulled up again in free fall., I love your eyes my dear, did Splendit sparkling fire, 'she confesses in' The Dull Flame Of Desire '. While Antony Hegarty continues worn by rich brass sensitive broken. , ... When Suddenly you raise them so to cast a swift embracing glace ' at, Declare Independence ' I can Björk way well imagine on the stage as screaming with raised fist themselves themselves and their audience cheering to finally show their colors and celebrate together. "
" African drum rhythms, distorted synth sounds esoteric soundscapes, fog horns - and in between howls this always suffering pop siren that is as unique as all their music. No one has been so successfully experimented in Popbiz like Björk. "
"Despite softer sounds, the use of real instruments instead of just her voice as a sound machine and a small step towards the mainstream one wonders at one or the other song exactly what it is telling us. How about in the ongoing sequence of the first single, Earth Intruders ', in which you can hear nothing but marching people. [ ... ] Björk will probably never run quite mainstream. Their motto was, one, to make full-bodied ' album. She succeeded - finally makes it really fun once again to listen to her. "