Björk - Volta
| Artist: | Björk |
| with: Mark Bell | |
| Rating: | |
| Genres: | Art Pop, Electronic Folktronica, Post-Industrial, Progressive Pop, Tribal House |
| Released: | 2007 |
| Type: | Album |
| Label: | One Little Indian |
| Link: | Bandcamp |
Volta is the sixth studio album by Icelandic singer Björk,[nb 1] released on 1 May 2007 by One Little Indian Records. A wide array of artists collaborated with Björk on material for the album, including longtime collaborator Mark Bell, along with new producers Timbaland and Danja....
The album received positive reviews upon its initial release, and is Björk's first and only album to reach the top 10 on the US Billboard 200, peaking at number nine. Volta spent nine weeks at number one on the US Top Electronic Albums chart and in the first three months of release sold over half a million copies worldwide. In the United Kingdom it was certified Silver. The lead single, "Earth Intruders", reached number 67 on the UK Official Download Chart, and number 78 on the main UK Singles Chart, while the remix EP later charted on its own at number 150. In the United States, the song became her second entry on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 84. Volta was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.
The album was re-released in June 2009 in expanded versions, under the name Voltaïc. There were five separate versions of related material from Volta. The full version included a CD of 11 songs performed live at the Olympic Studios, a DVD of live performances in Paris and Reykjavík during the Volta tour, a second DVD of the Volta music videos, videos of the top ten runners-up from the "Innocence" video contest, and a second CD of remixes from Volta's singles. The official worldwide release date of all editions was 23 June 2009. The artwork was nominated for an award at the 2010 Brit Insurance Design Awards. It was a collaboration between the German fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm and British fashion photographer Nick Knight. Björk went on an 18-month tour in support of the album, which was her first tour in four years.
Volta was labeled as an electropop, experimental, world and avant-pop album. Stylistically, it's a distinctive and eclectic album that, while incorporating the efforts of many collaborators, touches on forms of music like brass music, Chinese folk music, percussive tribal music, electro, Malian folk music, ambient and industrial music. Björk opted to incorporate plucked stringed instruments "like the ocean ... but more dirty sounding than when [she] did, for example, Vespertine", and thematically, she intended the album to be "going for something more pagan".
She used brass instrumentation for almost every song on the album, and most of the instrumentation is courtesy of an all-female Icelandic brass ensemble. However, Björk also used samples from her previous project, The Music From Drawing Restraint 9, as in the case of "Vertebræ by Vertebræ" and "Declare Independence", because she was interested to find out how the sounds from that soundtrack album would sound in a less ambient or atmospheric soundscape. For the song "Pneumonia", also featuring an independent horn section, she drew inspiration from her own bout with the disease, and an emotionally moving viewing of the film Pan's Labyrinth.
"Earth Intruders" incorporates the efforts of multiple collaborators, including Timbaland and Danja's tribal production, Congolese ensemble Konono N°1 who play electric likembés, and experimental American percussionist Chris Corsano, as well as a continuously playing, "squelching" unified marching sound. "Declare Independence" was originally an instrumental track by British musician and frequent musical collaborator Mark Bell, performed at his live shows as early as November 2006. Björk later added her vocals on top. It features noisy and distorted industrial techno-style production, similar to "Pluto" on Björk's 1997 album Homogenic, and has been compared to Atari Teenage Riot because of its stylistic nods to punk. The lyrics are dedicated to the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
Björk has described "Wanderlust" as being the heart of Volta, and has said that the song is about "the state of looking for something and almost knowing you're never going to find it" and that it makes fun of her hunger for "something new". It was released in the UK on 30 June. As Björk said in an interview for Harp, "Things go in circles. Wanderlust, for example, is a sort of continuity of 'Hyperballad'."
The album received positive reviews upon its initial release, and is Björk's first and only album to reach the top 10 on the US Billboard 200, peaking at number nine. Volta spent nine weeks at number one on the US Top Electronic Albums chart and in the first three months of release sold over half a million copies worldwide. In the United Kingdom it was certified Silver. The lead single, "Earth Intruders", reached number 67 on the UK Official Download Chart, and number 78 on the main UK Singles Chart, while the remix EP later charted on its own at number 150. In the United States, the song became her second entry on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 84. Volta was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.
The album was re-released in June 2009 in expanded versions, under the name Voltaïc. There were five separate versions of related material from Volta. The full version included a CD of 11 songs performed live at the Olympic Studios, a DVD of live performances in Paris and Reykjavík during the Volta tour, a second DVD of the Volta music videos, videos of the top ten runners-up from the "Innocence" video contest, and a second CD of remixes from Volta's singles. The official worldwide release date of all editions was 23 June 2009. The artwork was nominated for an award at the 2010 Brit Insurance Design Awards. It was a collaboration between the German fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm and British fashion photographer Nick Knight. Björk went on an 18-month tour in support of the album, which was her first tour in four years.
Volta was labeled as an electropop, experimental, world and avant-pop album. Stylistically, it's a distinctive and eclectic album that, while incorporating the efforts of many collaborators, touches on forms of music like brass music, Chinese folk music, percussive tribal music, electro, Malian folk music, ambient and industrial music. Björk opted to incorporate plucked stringed instruments "like the ocean ... but more dirty sounding than when [she] did, for example, Vespertine", and thematically, she intended the album to be "going for something more pagan".
She used brass instrumentation for almost every song on the album, and most of the instrumentation is courtesy of an all-female Icelandic brass ensemble. However, Björk also used samples from her previous project, The Music From Drawing Restraint 9, as in the case of "Vertebræ by Vertebræ" and "Declare Independence", because she was interested to find out how the sounds from that soundtrack album would sound in a less ambient or atmospheric soundscape. For the song "Pneumonia", also featuring an independent horn section, she drew inspiration from her own bout with the disease, and an emotionally moving viewing of the film Pan's Labyrinth.
"Earth Intruders" incorporates the efforts of multiple collaborators, including Timbaland and Danja's tribal production, Congolese ensemble Konono N°1 who play electric likembés, and experimental American percussionist Chris Corsano, as well as a continuously playing, "squelching" unified marching sound. "Declare Independence" was originally an instrumental track by British musician and frequent musical collaborator Mark Bell, performed at his live shows as early as November 2006. Björk later added her vocals on top. It features noisy and distorted industrial techno-style production, similar to "Pluto" on Björk's 1997 album Homogenic, and has been compared to Atari Teenage Riot because of its stylistic nods to punk. The lyrics are dedicated to the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
Björk has described "Wanderlust" as being the heart of Volta, and has said that the song is about "the state of looking for something and almost knowing you're never going to find it" and that it makes fun of her hunger for "something new". It was released in the UK on 30 June. As Björk said in an interview for Harp, "Things go in circles. Wanderlust, for example, is a sort of continuity of 'Hyperballad'."
Editions:
2007
Original Release
One Little Indian
| TPLP460
| CD/Vinyl
| 01. | Björk | ‐ | Earth Intruders | (6:13) | |
| 02. | Björk | ‐ | Wanderlust | (5:51) | |
| 03. | Björk | ‐ | The Dull Flame of Desire | (7:31) | |
| 04. | Björk | ‐ | Innocence | (4:27) | |
| 05. | Björk | ‐ | I See Who You Are | (4:22) | |
| 06. | Björk | ‐ | Vertebrae by Vertebrae | (5:08) | |
| 07. | Björk | ‐ | Pneumonia | (5:14) | |
| 08. | Björk | ‐ | Hope | (4:03) | |
| 09. | Björk | ‐ | Declare Independence | (4:13) | |
| 10. | Björk | ‐ | My Juvenile | (4:03) | |
| 11. | Björk feat. Mark Bell | ‐ | I See Who You Are (Mark Bell Mix) | (4:01) |