Bjork 'Voltaic' album

Björk announces a very special DVD/CD/VINYL recording, Voltaic on June 23, 2009, world wide! Available in five different physical configurations, Voltaic is a lovingly packaged celebration of the past two years of Björk’s Volta activities—her critically praised sixth studio album, which came out in 2007, and the subsequent two-year world tour.

“This relentless restlessness liberates me,” Björk declares on “Wanderlust” from her 2007 studio album, Volta, which is also the dramatic concluding track of her new Voltaic live CD. “I feel at home whenever the unknown surrounds me.”

Volta had been designed, Björk has said, as a journey, with the sound of fog horns and clanging bells linking individual tracks and artists from around the world making guest appearances, including Congolese band Konono No. 1, Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté, pipa virtuoso Wu Man, beat-master Timbaland, Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale and sublime chanteur Antony Hegarty. The New York Times called it “a 21st-century assemblage of the computerized and the handmade, the personal and the global.”

Voltaic, then, is a remarkable, multi-media document of what happened after the record was completed, a journey of a different sort as the ever-evolving singer assembled her live band, made a collection of typically amazing videos and one-step-ahead remixes, and toured the world for two years, making headline appearances at diverse venues and large festivals, including Glastonbury, Coachella and even Harlem’s Apollo Theatre. She recorded the Voltaic live CD in one take at Olympic Studio in London with her new band, prior to her 2007 Glastonbury appearance, presenting the set she would play on tour – songs from Volta and new arrangements of such older material as “Pagan Poetry,” “All Is Full Of Love” and a thunderous version of “Army Of Me.” It’s a stunning performance, featuring cutting-edge computer technology, an old-school horn section and a female, flag-toting Icelandic choir – “bursting with raw life,” to paraphrase The Independent’s description of Volta.

The Voltaic DVD contains highlights of Björk’s visually dazzling Volta tour, full of on-your-feet moments, filmed in Paris and Reykjavik. Deluxe editions of Voltaic also include a CD of remixes of Volta album tracks by such fellow travelers as Spank Rock, Simian Mobile Disco, Ratatat and Modeselektor, plus a DVD of Volta video clips, including Michel Gondry’s take on “Declare Independence,” set in a drab factory, that manages to reach a colorful, hopeful conclusion – a revolution meant to be televised.

Volta, said the NME, was “another amazing statement of intent – full of hope, eccentricity and wonderfulness.” Voltaic presents a fascinating abundance of evidence that, as the NME put it, “there’s still no one like her.”

Bjork Voltiac five releases
Voltaic DVD 1 contains filmed highlights from the Volta tour, recorded in Paris and Reykjavik, with performances of songs from Volta as well as tracks from previous albums including Hunter, Joga, Army of Me, and Hyperballad.

Björk’s band on the Volta tour included Mark Bell (LFO) on computers and keyboards and Damian Taylor on keyboards and programming. Drums and percussion were played by Chris Corsano (Sonic Youth, etc.); Jónas Sen played piano, harpsichord, and church organ; and Björk’s all female Icelandic 10-piece brass section rounded out the group. A dynamic, grand live experience, the Volta tour has been acclaimed around the world. As the Guardian (UK) said in its five-star review, “Björk delivers a performance as visually spectacular as it is musically innovative. Fifteen years into her solo career Björk remains the least compromising and most fantastical pop superstar talent.”

Voltaic DVD 2 features all of the Volta music videos, including the “Declare Independence” clip directed by celebrated Oscar winning French director Michel Gondry; the “Wanderlust” video directed by encyclopedia pictura; and the “Earth Intruders” video directed by renowned French animator Michel Ocelot.

Voltaic CD 1 is a selection of songs from the Volta tour recorded live at the legendary Olympic Studios in London, just before Björk’s headlining show at the Glastonbury Festival in 2007. It was recorded in one afternoon, and the whole set was played live and captured in one take before being produced and mixed by Björk.

Voltaic CD 2 features key remixes from Volta, with versions of “Earth Intruders,” “Declare Independence,” “Innocence,” “Wanderlust,” and “Dull Flame of Desire,” by the likes of Simian Mobile Disco, Matthew Herbert, Graeme Sinden, Ghostigital, and Modeselektor.

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Bjork - Voltaic