Channeling Björk /
Local talent sets out on a journey across the Icelandic diva's emotional landscapes
by Dave Kirby, Boulder Weekly. March 2003
One wonders where the real divas of pop music have gone. Is this all we have left: Barbie-doll Noxema models like Britney or Christina; lame faux-country-girl P&L statements like Shania Twain; glitter jobs like Celine; or eggshell-ego nothings like Mariah Carey? Or, egads, someone's idea of skate-punk angst, Avril Lavigne?
Let's put it this way, most of us will realize how callow the female pop singer paradigm has become when the Spice Girls reunite and show us some depth. Sure, Norah Jones has an armful of Grammys, but she'll be co-opted into corporate mush money before the War is over.
Where the hell is Vonda Shepherd or Shirley Manson when you need them most?
The most successful pop musician from Iceland, Björk released her Greatest Hits album last year, at the worrisome age of 37. Those of us lurking on the gloomier side of pop-culture criticism usually take that as an artist's concession that the market has moved on and that what's left will be heard by an increasingly select number of people. In other words, most artists don't call their older work the "greatest" unless there's some suspicion that it might just be so.
That's unfortunate for Björk. Extracted through the weirdness of post-Siouxsie punk and Euro-agitpop, she cuts a unique, compelling figurepart alien seductress, part angular social critic, part shameless flirt. With a voice that could stop machinery, a restless image of nerves and frazzled intensity, Björk didn't so much sing a song as wrestle it to the ground and smother it into submission. At her best, she can carry the drama of Kate Bush, the chops of Sinead O'Connor and the bemused esoterica of Laurie Anderson.
And, no, you probably haven't been hearing her much on the radio lately. Her last CD of new material, Vespertine, is a restrained, intimate affairmainly subdued layers of electronica and string-section melancholy supporting delicately wrought songs of comfort-zone reassurance and introspection. Gorgeous stuff, but it won't come to you on its own.
I guess if I were a working musician, biding my time between radio hits, filming live gigs with orchestras, scoring films and tending to my website, I'd have mixed reactions if I heard that people were doing tribute concerts for me. Sure, I'd be flatteredŠ but if I were Björk I'd be accustomed to a certain level of unbridled adulation anyway. Maybe I'd wish to remind them that I wasn't dead yet and ask them if they were absolutely certain it wasn't too soon to be doing tributes. Or, ask them how much of the gig was going to be sung in Icelandic.
Who knows? It's never been altogether easy to get a handle on Björk from the outside, so handicapping her satisfaction at a tribute concert in a far-off American college town is probably a sketchy proposition.
Local keyboardist Erik Deutsch doesn't seem too worried about it. On Thursday, March 13, he and a sizable cast of musicians and production personnel will stage "Emotional Landscapes: A Tribute to Björk" at the Boulder Theater. We're not sure if this has been done before, but very likely it hasn't been done by anyone with a keener appreciation of the mercurial Icelandic chanteuse.
"I've always thought Björk's music was just ... fantastic," says Deutsch. "It's always been an inspiration for me, and I know it's inspired a lot of other musicians and artists as well.
"But even after I was a fan, years later, I was introduced to her music at a level that I saw how well her music translates to so many interpretations. I just tend to think of her songs as very grandiose, real concert-setting music. Big and fancy. It's just the way I think the music is conceived and how it should be presented."
Deutsch is acting as producer and keyboardist for the show, dividing his time between arranging rehearsals and logistics, and charting out the tunes themselves, carefully seeking the middle ground between interpretative license and authenticity.
"Basically, we've been doing rehearsals since the New Year," he says. "We get people coming over in groups of two or three at a time, and they work on their parts, and then we'll do a full rehearsal down in Denver once or twice a week. The band is really sounding good now. This has really come together well. I think we're all excited."
"This is a tribute show, but it's also how everyone interprets Björk's music itself. My job is to bring the music out and arrange it, but the singers themselves all have their own way of interpreting the songs. I've always seen music sort of like jazz in that way, really open and subject to interpretation."
Joining Deutsch will be noted cabaret crooner Casey Collins, DeVotchKa singer/guitarist Nick Urata, former Boulder singer Sonja Valletwho's flying in from Baltimore to join the ensembleand cellist (and member, with Deutsch, of County Road X) James Hoskins.
"We've got someone working a slide production, a three-piece string ensemble and someone doing beats through a laptop, so this will be a fairly complex event to stage," says Deutsch. "I'm planning to just do some keyboards, plus the arrangements. We're going to do two sets."
"And, no. No singing for me," he adds, laughing.
But he's also aware that, in large part, he's playing Björk every bit as much as the singers are.
"She's incredible," says Deutsch. "She writes everything, all the parts, all the string charts. She's had some good producers over the yearsTricky, Howie B, Deodatobut that's part of her abilities, too. Knowing how to pick a producer that can extract just the right elements of your talent, how to produce it, how to showcase it properly. It's not always an easy thing to do, but I think that's one of the reasons she's been so successful."
"We're leaving it to the singers to do what they do, not necessarily to imitate Björk herself, but just to show how her songs can translate into a different form, a different interpretation. The material is rich enough, I think, to do that."
"This is a real community event, getting local players together to do this. The Theater has been real helpful. For now, we're planning to do it just once, but hopefully we'll have a chance to do it again in Denver this summer. We'll see how it goes."