Programme
- Björk releases Björk Orkestral With the Hamrahlíð Choir on physical formats November 27 via One Little Independent
- The album documents 2021 performances at Harpa Hall in Reykjavík with the 50-person Hamrahlíð Choir
- It features new arrangements of songs from Björk's 2004 album Medúlla across an 11-song tracklist
- The album was first sold in May as an exclusive at the National Gallery of Iceland
- Proceeds from the original concerts supported Kvennaathvarfið, a women's shelter in Reykjavík
Björk will release her live album Björk Orkestral With the Hamrahlíð Choir worldwide on physical formats on November 27, via One Little Independent. The record documents performances at Harpa Hall in Reykjavík in 2021.
The album first appeared in May as an exclusive sold at the National Gallery of Iceland. The new release brings it to LP, CD, Blu-ray, and DVD. No digital release has been set.
The collection centers on new arrangements of material from Björk's 2004 album Medúlla. She refined the versions during extensive rehearsals made possible by the empty touring calendars of the COVID-19 era.
"I could tweak older songs that i felt i hadn't acquired experience yet how to perform live," Björk said in a press release.
Who made the album possible?
Björk credited her musical director Bergur Þórisson and Þorgerður Ingólfsdóttir, founder of the 50-person Hamrahlíð Choir, in her acknowledgments. The choir takes its name from Reykjavík's Hamrahlíð College and performed the 2021 Harpa concerts alongside the singer.
The original concerts carried a charitable purpose: proceeds supported Kvennaathvarfið, a women's shelter in Reykjavík.
What's on the tracklist?
The album runs eleven songs, drawing heavily on Medúlla alongside earlier material:
- Show Me Forgiveness
- Pleasure Is All Mine
- Hidden Place
- Cosmogony
- Sonnets / Unrealities XI
- Unravel
- Vertebræ by Vertebræ
- Who Is It
- Mouth's Cradle
- Where Is the Line
- New World
The pandemic rehearsal window gave Björk the rare chance to revisit works she had never fully solved in live performance. "Hidden Place" and "Unravel," both originally from her 2001 album Vespertine, appear in reworked form alongside the Medúlla material.
The November 27 release marks the first time these Harpa performances reach a global audience, and the Blu-ray and DVD editions suggest the project was conceived as a visual document as much as an audio one.
Original: olirecords.com
