foray said:
Bjork doesn't look human.
I have only recently been getting very heavily into Bjork. The three albums I love & have listened to death are, in chronological order of me getting into them
Selmasongs
Post
Homogenic
A long time ago, I posted a thread about how I just don't get Bjork's music. I asked, what exactly does Bjork contribute to in the production process? - a question that I don't think was answered... I mean, I want to know how much of the lyrics are her own, does she actually compose the orchestral parts, does she have a hand in the electronica tweaking... all that. I want to know, I want to know 
foray
This are quotes from Bjork about her work.
about : making Debut
"Debut" was all the songs I wrote during ten years in my house on Iceland after my son had gone to bed. They were very intimate, like little experiments. It was like a diary, something that kept you sane rather than you'd want to tell the whole world about it.
about : recording Debut
When I started doing these recordings, I did it all on my own, and with all the people who got involved, like the engineers, brass students and Oliver Lake, I was like: 'Listen, there's no budget yet, if you're interested, you have to be interested for yourself and if it goes on record you will get paid.'
Oliver was interested and he arranged it, sent it back. I then got Derek Birkett (One Little Indian's chief) on a good day and said: 'Listen Derek, I want to do an album, but it's not going to be what you think it's going to be, because I am in no mood to please anyone, and it's not going to be your chanteuse, easy-to-sell album.'
Birkett, a former founder member of anarchoagit punk band Flux Of Pink Indians, remembers that "Bj?rk had recorded some songs in Los Angeles with Franny Gold, which I thought were the most commercial things she'd ever written". They were not to appear on the album, though.
I played him the three songs so far with saxophone and voice. He liked it and said: `Fair enough, I'll put money into it,' and had complete faith. It was very surprising to me. I thought he'd want me to do hit songs, go commercial.
"I did want her to do that," Birkett confirms. "She played me 'Violently Happy', which I hated, and still do. I told her she could do whatever she wanted, because that's the way I work, but I didn't think the album would do as well as The Sugarcubes' first album, which did a million [worldwide]. I was wrong. It looks as if Debut will sell a million."
about : making Post
This album is on the contrary. I've moved from Iceland to England and all the songs are written since then. So they're all written with in mind that many people are going to hear them. They're not shy and introvert, they're more sort of conscious and more confident.
Because it's the girl who leaves home and tries out all these brand new things she hasn't done before. Seeing new cities and meeting all these lunatics. All the lunatics are like herself because there aren't that many back on Iceland. She's figuring out there are more people out there who feel like her. It's definitely a brave album but at the same time it's a bit scaring. "Post" is more scaring than "Debut" cause I'm definitely jumping off more cliffs this time.
about : writing the songs for Post
The tunes I wrote with Graham, I actually wrote before "Debut", and I saved them for this. I met him in 1990; that was when we were really sparking big time off each other, and for a few years we sent each other tapes, and then when I started doing "Debut" with Nellee it just became very obvious that it would end up as a very musical affair between me and Nellee. So I talked to Graham and decided to keep the other songs because they were just too different. So I saved "Army of Me" and "Modern Things" for this album, and then Howie has been one of my closest friends in England for over three years and that just kind of happened one afternoon. That song we wrote in an hour.
about : Homogenic having no producer
I used to need someone to help me get the song out of my system, but I'm my own midwife now.
about : how Homogenic is different
I think it's just better. "Debut" and "Post" were a lot of stuff I've written over many, many years. So when I started doing this album I caught up with myself, All these songs are from a one-year period, and more of what I am today. "Human Behaviour" is so obviously written when I was a teenager.
about : recording Homogenic
I recorded Homogenic in a house in El Madronal, Spain, where I could stand on a balcony that looked out to Africa. I sang in a mixing room with my friends near me.
about : producing Vespertine
I did maybe about 80 percent of the album on my own with an engineer.
Did you miss working with the team you're accustomed to?
We would program together. I would describe a vision and describe a lot of sounds, and the engineer would help me with the rest. Three years ago, I knew what sort of album I wanted to do. I usually start out with a pretty clear vision, and then I sort of color in a picture after that. Because I'm not such a good craftsman, I would do all the basic beats and harp and string arrangements. I then get specialists in each category to take it that one step further. I'd get a string orchestra or a harp arranger who would take my arrangements and add some of their own. They add about 10 to 20 percent of their own sounds.
about : the production of vespertine
i guess the first stage is i decided what the instrumentation was going to be ,
then i did about 80% of the beats with the help of programmers ( which means you bring noises or describe what kind of noises you want and then place them maticulously , sound by sound , in the places you want them to be in .) song structure decisions .
then i did the harp arrangements that zeena played adding her own arrangements in the songs where it is credited
then i did scetches of string arrangements that vince mendoza completed some and then orchestrated .
then i asked people like marius de vries and matthew herbert and matmos to add stuff after i had descibed to them what i was after .
the last stage is mixing , then you have perhaps up to 80 channels of stuff and the work of a producer is to pick what ends up in the song and what not . on vespertine a lot off stuff was thown out . roughly i would guess about 60% .
Hope it helps
BJORK!!!
