Today, the wide, tree-lined street in New York's Brooklyn
Heights that Björk calls home is a hubbub of television cast and
crew filming the ABC drama Georgetown. Her
280-square-metre penthouse apartment lies atop a muscular 20s
redbrick block on the corner, high above the bustle. "You kind of
feel like it's a country house," Björk says. She is wearing a
cadet-grey dress with shiny mauve patches on the shoulder and
waist. When the sunlight from the studio windows hits them, they
sparkle. The room is airy, with tables for her kit, which includes
a keyboard, speakers, computer and a mix of percussion and
electronic music controlpads. Björk has spent much time here over
the last 36 months working on Biophilia, trying not to
feel daunted by the album's scope.
There was a musicological ambition: she wanted each of the
album's ten songs to emphasise one key idea, such as counterpoint,
arpeggios or tempo. And there's intellectual purpose: each song's
lyrics dwell on a scientific theme that attempts to match its
musical concern. In "Crystalline" Björk invokes crystals as a
symbol of the track's structural complexity; "Virus" is so called
because of its multiplying phrases. "I hope to show kids that if
you base musicology more on structures in nature it's actually
not that complicated," she says. Although "a bit of a maths nerd"
when she was younger, for this album she knew that she would have
to learn more about the sciences if she was to unite them
convincingly with music.
She worked to self-imposed deadlines, reading books and watching
documentaries on everything from astrophysics to
cultural theory, focusing on areas where science and sound
intersect. One major influence was Oliver Sacks's book
Musicophilia, an exploration of the relationship between
music and neurology, to
which the album's title is a nod. Björk undertook more research for
this project than for any of her previous albums. One day she found
herself explaining string theory to friends in a bar. "It was
actually in a pretty cool way," she says, grinning. "Like I was
really good at physics or something."
For all their chewy themes, Björk felt the songs couldn't stand
on their own. "People are getting a lot of music for free by
pirating it," she says. "But they are going to double [the amount
of] shows because they want a 3D,
physical experience." Her instinct, at first, was to provide
that experience through a music house, "like a museum". Each room
would be designated a different song, and contain interactive
exhibits related to the track. The stairs would be working piano
keys. In June 2009 she spoke to National Geographic about
another way she could add to the album: working together on a
40-minute
3D IMAX movie of Biophilia. She approached her
longtime collaborator, French filmmaker
Michel Gondry, who agreed to direct. Björk hoped this film and
the music house would not only generate revenue, but also educate
-- finally realising the vision she had described to her teacher,
all those years ago. "This project," she says, "is also my
music-school project."