Highlights - Muses

 

Björk

The biggest rock band to emerge from Iceland, the Sugarcubes drew notice for their offbeat songs and singer Björk Gudmundsdóttir, an elfin womanchild with a powerful, keening voice. Björk, whose stepfather had been in an Icelandic rock band, recorded her first album at age 11, and later joined Theyr, a legendary Icelandic hard-rock band whose drummer was Siggi Baldursson. Einar Örn Benediktsson launched Gramm Records, and with Bragi Ólafsson formed punk band Purrkur Pillnikk whose debut EP reached Iceland’s Top Twenty in 1981. In 1982 Theyr recorded with Jaz Coleman and Youth of British punk band Killing Joke (who’d suddenly turned up in Iceland fearful of an impending apocalypse), while Purrkur PilInikk toured with British punk band the Fall (which had done some recording in Iceland, where it had a strong cult following).

In 1984 Björk, Einar, Siggi, and keyboardist Einar Mellax formed KUKL (Icelandic for "witch"), an atonal, theatrical rock band that toured Europe and released some singles on a label run by the British anarchic-punk band Crass. KUKL became the Sugarcubes, which formed the company Bad Taste (encompassing record label, art gallery, bookstore, publishing house, and radio station). Life’s Too Good (#54, 1988) got rave reviews in England and the U.S., where MTV aired the video for the hypnotic, incantatory "Birthday."

  
 

In 1989 Björk’s ex-husband Thór (with whom she has a son) married new keyboardist Magga Ornolfsdottir, while Bragi and Örn also were wed (the first openly gay marriage in rock history). Here Today Tomorrow, Next Week! (#70, 1989), with fussier arrangements featuring strings and horns, was panned by critics. Björk and Baldursson then worked on Gling Glo, a Bad Taste album of jazzed-up Fifties Icelandic pop songs. The Sugarcubes played for French President Francois Mitterrand during a 1991 summit meeting in Reykjavík, before recording Stick Around for Joy (#95, 1992).

A year later Björk ventured outside the Sugarcubes to record her first U.S. solo album, Debut (#61, 1993), with producer/composer Nellee Hooper of British soul/jazz collective Soul II Soul. It yielded the single "Human Behavior," which reached #2 on the modern-rock charts. In mid-1995 Björk released Post, which, in addition to Hooper, features such contributors as Tricky, Graham Massey, and Eumir Deodato (of 2001 fame).

 

OFFICIAL BJÖRK SITE