‘Arisen My Senses’: The song Björk called a “constellation in the sky”

(Credit: Press)
Ever the consummate artist, Icelandic singer Björk has always pursued an uncompromising path of creative fortitude, establishing herself in her 1990s debut as a solo artist (formerly fronting indie band The Sugarcubes and even had some releases as a child star) with a string of incredibly forward-thinking pop and innovative videos that cemented Björk as one of the key artists of that decade. Guided by an intrepid instinct for the emerging musical sub-cultures that orbited electronica and the avant-garde, collaborations with LFO’s Mark Bell or The Haxan Cloak have yielded a run of albums that always makes sense within the music climate but also always, unmistakably Björk.
Following the break-up heartache that informed 2015’s Vulnicura, Björk teamed up with Venezuelan electronica artist and producer Arca for another delve into heady folk-tinged digital explorations, replete with the complex arrangements that have typified her work in the last few years, moving away from Vulnicura‘s solemn introspections in favour of a brighter, fuller sonic experience for ’17’s Utopia, a Spring rebirth to the former’s Winter rumination. Furthering her embrace of multi-media dimensions to her album releases, Björk recruited James T. Merry to design the cover’s distinctive silicone mask and issued cryptocurrency to the tune of 100 Audiocoins (value of $0.19) with every record purchase.
Such creative energy poured into Utopia‘s expanded peripheries never took priority over the music, ensuring that whatever technological fancies she explored were always in service of the music. When discussing Andrew Thomas Huang’s intricate CGI video, Björk told Dazed: “‘The Gate’ is essentially a love song, but I say ‘love’ in a more transcendent way. Vulnicura was about a very personal loss, and I think this new album is about a love that’s even greater. It’s about rediscovering love – but in a spiritual way, for lack of a better word.”
It’s third single and album opener ‘Arisen My Senses’ that showcases Utopia‘s reach for maximalist expanse. A sumptuous, celestial firework of intermingling melodies and processed harps illustrating the record’s passionate affirmation of new love and rebirth, it’s a joyous burst so infectious you almost hear Björk’s vocals crack with a laugh around the two-minute mark.
Appropriating Arca’s earlier track ‘Little Now A Lot’ (and speaking prior to Arca’s preferred pronouns), Björk revealed to Fact Magazine the organic and intuitive genesis of the track’s development: “I just sampled it, sang it to him and he just exploded, you know? I wasn’t really conscious of what I was doing. I was reaching for the most euphoric, antigravity moment that he’d done, and then I exaggerated that by looping it and writing a harp arrangement around it and singing on top of it these ecstatic lyrics.”
It’s one of Bjork’s most impressive compositions and a perfect enticement to Utopia‘s positive vision for the future. Speaking to Pitchfork, Björk described the single in her own, unique way: “Looking back now, the melodies on Vulnicura are very sad, and there’s short spaces between the notes. It’s kind of paralyzed. The first song I wrote on this album, the opening song, ‘Arisen My Senses,’ is the opposite. The melody’s like a constellation in the sky. It’s almost like an optimist rebellion against the normal narrative melody. There’s not one melody. It’s like five melodies. I really loved that.”
Utopia garnering unanimous critical acclaim, and ‘Arisen My Senses’ the focus of particular praise for its intriguing video, Björk demonstrated her remarkable gift for extracting deep, human universalism from the most unlikely places. With the creation of her recent AI Nature Manifesto installation, Björk hopefully sets an enduring example for future artists, that artistic integrity and ethics can always be reached with whatever the latest technological innovations.
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