The Icelandic pop mistress Bjork has decided to spread her artistic wings into the realm of film in Lars von Trier's award-winning musical "Dancer in the Dark." Her new EP, Selmasongs, is the oftentimes stunning symphonic result of this endeavor. Weaving together her vast imaginative soundscapes and the astonishing fantasies of Hollywood musicals, Bjork has produced a work that has evolved from the standard musical soundtrack of old into a pastiche of modern harmonious textures.
Bjork first transports listeners to her character Selma's wash-basin factory job on the second track, "Cvalda." This song is packed with layers of sounds, including those of an assembly line's mechanical heartbeat, a synthesized flourish and a seemingly complete chorus of her fellow workers, featuring co-star Catherine Deneuve. Bjork exclaims, "It's music! Now dance!" And even though the sound effects sometimes diminish the song's overall power, "Cvalda" is a track that makes the listener want to rise to his or her feet.
Much of the remainder of "Selmasongs" dips into the realm of the melancholic to match the lows of Selma's nearly blind existence. Aptly beginning with the pulse of an incoming train, "I've Seen It All" methodically reveals Selma's longing. Radiohead's Thom Yorke joins her on this ballad in singing such lines as "I've seen it all, I've seen the dark/ I've seen the brightness in one little spark."
The brilliance of Selmasongs
does not fully shine through until track five, "In the Musicals." Bells are lightly tapped and instrumentation swells while Bjork beautifully belts out a line that encapsulates the entire musical genre: "And there's always someone/ To catch me." Rodgers and Hammerstein could not have said it better lyrically or otherwise.
As Bjork, Sjon and Lars von Trier's lyrics "A new world, a new day to see" float off into the abyss of "Dancer in the Dark's" end credits, it becomes evident that Selmasongs is a miniature soundtrack (it's only seven tracks long) of epic proportions, propelling Bjork further into the musical stratosphere.
