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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
afterall, it is a soundtrack, 31 Jul 2005
By A Customer
Many people are forgetting with this album that it is not a proper bjork release. Sure, all the songs are composed by her, but the main purpose of the songs was to fit with the film 'Drawing Restraint 9', and not express the emotion that bjork usually puts into her songs. I do not mean that the songs have no heart to them, but purely that most of the emotion and feel of them is Matthew Barney's. This is a very strange album with an overall avant garde quality, but then it had to be to fit with the theme of the movie, which itself is focused on Bjork and Barney turning in to whales (amongst other things), and of course with any soundtrack, I feel that greater understanding of the songs would be gained by watching the film. I agree with one of the other reviews that this soundtrack is a sort of mix between vespertine and medulla, but there is also a new element on this soundtrack which is shown in songs such as 'storm'. Even though a lot of the songs are rather bizarre, there are some which sound just like normal bjork. The wierdest of the songs, is 'holographic entrypoint', which is basically a japanese man chanting for 10 minutes. This song is not very easy to listen to, but it is understandable why it is placed on the soundtrack as this song is key in the film. 'Gratitude', 'Cetacea', 'Ambergris March' and a few others, are all great examples of a more traditional Bjork. 'Gratitude' featuring the voice of Will Oldham is the most normal song on the soundtrack, and listener's will instantly be reminded of the sounds of Vespertine. Songs like 'Pearl' and 'Bath' sound as if directly lifed from medulla (both songs feature vocals, but no distinctive lyrics). The introduction of an ancient Japanese instrument called 'sho' is first featured on 'Pearl', but is a recurring motif throughout the album.'Hunter vessel, 'shimenawa' and 'vessel Shimenawa' act as a trilogy, all of which feature no volcals, but have a more ochestral quality to them. Other intrumental pieces, such as 'Ambergris March', are filled with bells, harpsichord and crotales, which work together to make beautiful pieces of music. The album closes with 'Antarctic Return', which features the sho solo. It is hard to explain what the sho sounds like, but imagine a mix of a harmonica and an organ. This piece creates a beautiful homely feel which matches the scene in which it plays on DR9, where bjork and Barney, once turned into whales, travel to the antarctic. The overall feel to this soundtrack is rather dark and haunting, however there is a sense of innocence as well, whch comes through in the form of children's choirs and harps and celeste. The soundtrack fits the theme of the avant guarde/arty film, and will leave the listener both wierded out and stangely satisfied.
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