Published
Mon, May 1, 2017, 16:57
- The book of arrangements—called 34 Scores for Piano, Organ, Harpsichord and Celeste—will be available in June.
Björk has announced a songbook surveying her career.
She wrote the arrangements, called 34 Scores for Piano, Organ, Harpsichord and Celeste, along with pianist Jonas Sen. The Parisian design house M/M—who created her iconic moth mask—also worked with them to devise an original notation system for transcribing the songs to sheet music. The engraving company Notengrafik Berlin consulted on many of the design aspects for print.
"There are three levels to these keyboard arrangements," says Sen. "In one we simply transcribed the songs from the original to the keyboard. In the next level we arranged them so they sound different from the originals, yet convincing for the keyboard instrument in question. On the third level the songs are radically different from the original, almost like they are new compositions."
"I wanted to question how I felt about musical documentation," Björk explains. "I was curious about the difference between MIDI (digital notation) and classical notation, and enthusiastic about blurring the lines, and at which occasions and how one would share music in these new times. What is the difference between karaoke and the lyrical recitals of the 19th century? Can one meet at bonfires and sing techno songs? (Icelanders do, obviously.)"
The book will cover most of her career. It comes after acoustic and virtual reality versions of her 2015 album, Vulnicura, as well as the Björk Digital exhibition in Los Angeles and an upcoming performance with 32 string players at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, also in Los Angeles.