Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.04.2018, Blaðsíða 33

Utopia Found
Björk’s new stage show reveals a
beautiful parallel world

Words: Natalie Ouellette Photos: Santiago Felipe
Concert
Björk played Háskólabíó on April 12th
It’s hard to find the words to express
how one feels after seeing Björk per-
form, and I’m certainly not the only
who feels this way. When she walks
out on stage, her presence has a way
of slapping a big smile onto your
face. The experience of Björk’s sec-
ond and final “dress rehearsal” show
in Iceland for her upcoming ‘Utopia’
tour was no exception. We were in-
vited into her Utopian audio-visual
spectacle that was a complete im-
mersion of the senses into her world;
a place that radiated with beauty,
softness, and femininity.
Technicolour jungle
When myself and about a thousand
others entered the Háskólabíó thea-
tre, we drew a collective breath when
the stage came into view. Giant flow-
ers and foliage sprouted from the
floor and hung from the ceiling, like
a window into an overgrown rain-
forest. In the centre was a tall cy-
lindrical structure covered in what
looked like feathers. Or maybe reeds.
Or maybe leaves. Whatever they
were, they were dancing in a breeze
as we quickly shuffled to our seats,
soaking it all in to a soundtrack of
birdsong. The stage was a wild jun-
gle in shades of pink, red, gold, and
lush green. This was indeed a place
where everything looked perfect–an
evolution of Utopia.
Revolving vagina
The show began when the stage
centrepiece revolved towards us,
revealing Björk, and Viibra—her
seven-part flute ensemble—and
an oversized orchid sculpture that
had a very strong resemblance to a
vagina. ‘Utopia,’ as an
album, delves deeply
into the topics of sex,
gender, motherhood and
femininity, so it was no
surprise to see that this
phallic flower was the
focal point for the eight
performers. To their left
was Björk’s regular per-
cussionist Manu Delago,
and to their right, the
album’s engineer, Ber-
gur Þórisson, on beats and backing
tracks.
All the performers wore floral,
slightly alien “orchid_bone_fun-
gus” headpieces, as their designer
James Merry has referred to them.
Björk wore a red insect-inspired
dress by the extraordinary designer
Kaimin, while the septet wore peach
tunics and tights by the talented
trio threeASFOUR. Together, they
looked like a masked tribe emerging
through the fog of a lost island para-
dise.
Nymph-like flautists
As the soothing opening sounds of
“The Gate” rang out, we were warm-
ly welcomed with the lyrics “I care
for you, care for you” as a crystallised
VR Björk-apparition fluttered and
flickered over the screen above. Her
perfectly choreographed nymph-like
flautists danced in unison as their
instruments sparkled under the
stage lights.
“Arisen my Senses” came next,
and was a real highlight. Accompa-
nied by harpist Katie Buckley, each
beat was met with an explosively
blooming flower on the screen above.
I couldn’t help but look around to see
the reactions of the audience around
me and sure enough, the
majority of us had our
mouths open in awe.
With ‘Utopia’
being performed almost
in its entirety, back-cat-
alogue songs “Thunder-
bolt,” “Pleasure is All
Mine” and the Icelandic
version of “Anchor Song”
were also included. The
hour-and-a-half-long
set took us through the
emotional gauntlet, beginning with
the joyful themes of love and rebirth,
segueing into anger and loss in the
middle, and concluding with a sense
of warmth and comfort to be home.
It was a night where Björk cele-
brated love, femininity and the idea
of ‘Utopia’—and we celebrated with
her.
Share this: gpv.is/music
Welcome to Björk's feminine utopia
“Each beat
was met
with an
explosively
blooming
flower on
the screen
above.”
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