Björk makes electrifying appearance Saturday in Chicago

Saturday night the lights of the Roosevelt University Auditorium in Chicago darkened as the evocative voice of Björk began soaring from behind a thick curtain. An organ accompaniment vibrated beneath her voice. \nFive-thousand Björk fans raged wild as they awaited the appearance of the Icelandic singer on her North American tour for “Volta.” The curtains rose with a flash of red flames as her new song, “Earth Intruders,” began. For the next 90 minutes, Björk’s voice and presence electrified the sold-out house of 5,000 listeners for a performance that made her seem larger than life.\nThe performance revealed Björk’s love for brass sounds in her new songs as well as remixes of previous songs. Her appearance was also unmistakably “brassy” – she was wearing something that looked like a human-sized golden scrunchy and multi-colored fuzzy leggings. The music consisted of a range from intimate lyrical songs such as “Hyperballad” to the integration of animal-like inferno rhythms such as “Pagan Poetry.” The concert had a perpetual energy. \nIddo Aharony, an electronic composition major, said, “It felt like the concert was going from one explosion to the next.” \nBjörk’s band consisted of the Tentets, an all-female Icelandic brass section (wearing brightly-colored togas), Icelandic keyboardist Jonas Sen, improv drummer Chris Corsano and electronic musicians Mark Bell and Damien Taylor. \nThe presentation of the show had three large screens displaying interfaces used by the electronic musicians as well as brightly colored flags unrepresentative of any particular country above stage. \nBjörk’s unique and unpredictable personality was delivered fiercely in the closing song, “Declare Independence.” She howled, “Make your own flag! ... Higher … higher!”, as she hyped up the audience to the very last second. \nShe injected even more intensity with a coordinated laser show during the second half of the concert, beginning with her song “Army of Me.”\nMany Bloomington Björk fans made the trip to Chicago to see what they called a mesmerizing performance. \n“Her sense of rhythm and freedom is so natural,” IU graduate student Sophie Webber said. “This really comes across in the way she moves. You get drawn into her world even more subconsciously.” \nIU graduate student Kati Gleiser said she has been a Björk fan since she was a teenager. \nShe found the energy of the living person, the bare feet stomping on the floor, the electricity of the moment and the exchange between Björk and wildly excited fans to make for a live experience incomparable to recordings alone, she said. \n“Volta,” Björk’s sixth solo album, has been at the top of the charts since its release on May 7. \n“All I wanted for this album was to have fun and do something that was full-bodied and really up,” Björk said in a pre-release interview she had with Pitchfork.\nBjörk works with a variety of musicians on this tribal-influenced album. Aside from her touring band, she collaborated with R&B artist Timbaland, vocalist Antony Hegarty, drummer Brian Chippendale, Malian kora player Toumani Diabete and Chinese pipa player Min Xiao Fen.