Homogenic – Björk

Málaga studio, Icelandic strings, one sound

On 22 September 1997, One Little Indian released Björk’s third studio album, Homogenic. The first track is Hunter. It opens on stuttering beats and strings that move in long lines. She had asked for one flavour. The album sets electronic drums against formal strings. The voice is not sweetened, and it is not buried in the mix.

The studio choice was practical. After the attention around Post and the remix set Telegram, tour drummer Trevor Morais offered El Cortijo, his studio near Málaga, in San Pedro de Alcántara. She had meant to pass through, meet flamenco guitarist Raimundo Amador, and leave. She stayed and made the record there, with later work at her house in London. She stepped away from Nellee Hooper, who had shaped Debut and Post. Mark Bell of LFO became the electronic partner who could surprise her. Guy Sigsworth, Howie B and engineer Markus Dravs are in the credits. The brief was one sound, with a small group of producers.

The songs keep that sound without copying one arrangement. Jóga, written for her friend and released as the lead single on 15 September 1997, sets a vow on strings that grow louder. Michel Gondry’s video follows her across Iceland, with the landscape in the frame. Unravel is smaller: accordion and a heart described as yarn the devil collects. Bachelorette, arranged in part with Eumir Deodato conducting where she did not arrange herself, is the album’s big stage moment, and she still sings it straight. The Icelandic String Octet plays throughout, as a second voice in the arrangement.

All Neon Like, 5 Years, Immature, Alarm Call, Pluto: the back half keeps the drum parts hard and the strings formal, which is the contrast the album keeps. Nick Knight shot the cover. Alexander McQueen built the dress. The reshoot delayed the release. The cover matches the music: neither one aims at a pretty surface. Homogeneous, she had said. One flavour. The single flavour she asked for turned out to be that contrast, held across one album.