Drawing Restraint 9 [SOUNDTRACK]

Björk

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 23, 2005)
• Original Release Date: March 29, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: One Little Indian Us
• ASIN: B000A2H5M4
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #75,369 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When Björk became romantically involved with art-world darling Matthew Barney, the universe seemed to be uniting two of the most idiosyncratic artistic temperaments of the 21st century. The first major artistic product of this union, Drawing Restraint 9, music composed by Björk for Barney's film of the same name, finds their sensibilities eerily complementary. Barney's previous films, the megaton, five-part Cremaster Cycle, astounded audiences with a personal mythology inspired by the biological process of prenatal sexual differentiation, touching themes as unsettlingly diverse as speed metal, auto racing, Freemasonry, and Harry Houdini. Barney, a former model and football player, has always been interested in expressions of physical strain and release. This coincides quite nicely with the work Björk has produced lately, namely her album Medúlla, which was composed entirely of human voices--singing, coughing, grunting, and beatboxing. The intersection of these two artistic geniuses comes at precisely the right time, when Björk has cast off the last vestiges of her dance-floor self. To understand how remarkable a transformation this is, one might try to imagine what it would have been like if Donna Summers had turned into Yoko Ono.

There are instances of Björk's vocal soundscapes on this album, in the unsettling "Pearl" and the rainy and overdubbed opening of "Storm." Other tracks, filled to overflowing with bells and chimes, recall her most beautiful work on Vespertine. It used to be that Björk could chill the spine with a howl. Now she does it with a whisper, and these soft and haunting moments are what reward repeat listenings. With the music she produced for the soundtrack to Dancer in the Dark, Björk followed a more or less traditional narrative thread, stringing the songs together in such a way that one could follow a story even without having seen the movie. It's not quite that simple with Drawing Restraint 9. Without seeing the film, the music suggests a fascination with oceans, Japanese ritual, and the hidden powers of nature. It's spellbinding and confusing music, hinting at greater art to come from two artists of intense creativity and passion. --Ryan Boudinot

More Björk and Matthew Barney at Amazon.com

Medúlla	Vespertine	Selmasongs: Dancer in the Dark
The Cremaster Cycle: The Order (DVD)	Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle (hardback book)	Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle (paperback book)

Product Description

This soundtrack is composed by Björk with minimal vocals for celebrated contemporary visual artist Matthew Barney’s next film Drawing Restraint 9. Unlike her soundtrack for Lars von Trier’s film Dancer in the Dark which drew on the tradition of theatrical and cinema musicals (and won her Best Actress at Cannes), this is a collection of delicate single instrument studies for harp, harpsichord and celeste; large orchestral masses scored for trumpet, trombone and oboe, electronic basslines, children’s choir and, in a manner recalling the all-vocal Medulla album, Björk’s singular voice, treated as an instrument of astonishingly flexible texture. One Little Indian. 2005. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ok Ok...let's settle this once and for all!, October 11, 2005

By	Liquid Celluloid (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

Anyone considering buying this album needs to know 2 things about it: 1) None of the tracks on it are iPod worthy. You won't be jamming to any of the tunes on this effort by any means. 2) All of the somgs on this album are meant to convey an emotion...and deep reactionary emotion. Drawing Restraint 9 accomplishes this very well. If you're looking for catchy tunes and pop lullabies, then buy homogenic or vespertine. If your looking to explore human emotion and the way music evokes the human condition...then give medulla a good listen. If that album seems too tame for you, then Drawing Restraint 9 will be an essential in your music collection.
To be perfectly honest, this album is extremely creepy. It reminds me of Fantamos, only I can't understand it because most of it is in Japenese. Although the language might seem like it presents a problem, the emotions evoked from tracks like Storm are universal. I give this album 4 stars because it accomplishes it's task very well, the album, however, is inaccessable my most listeners and will end up collecting dust on most people's shelves (like mine for example). And I love Bjork...I own all of her work and she is a personal friend of mine. Even so, I doubt I will ever say to myself, "Listening to Drawing Restraint ( would fit the mood perfectly right now!"

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegantly Restrained Madness, October 14, 2005

By	Akimon Azuki - See all my reviews

I really love this album, though I can see why it may not have mass appeal.
Musically, it is a highly imaginative work, cramming seemingly chaotic but beautifully constructed compositions into an organic whole, dressed up with complex rhythms, strange sounds and sound effects- on Bath, Bjork manages to make her voice sound like a tea kettle! Add Japanese theatre antics, occasional bizarre lyrics and you get a very vivid aural experience. It is a soundtrack, but for me it works just fine without the actual visual part- it would be interesting to see it, but I don't feel that anything is missing.
I can't really point out a favourite track, every song has its extreme wicked charms, but if I had to choose, the bells, glass and spoons adorned Ambergris March and the rain drenched, wailing, reverb filled Storm are the strongest, most original statements; Hunter Vessel, with its majestic brass sound, is the one I keep returning to a lot.
Certainly, casual fans and admirers of Bjork's pop side might be freaked out, and many people may just not get it. This is not to say that this work needs any particularly deep thinking on anyone's part in order to be appreciated- if anything, soft spot for all things primal might be useful here- but it certainly helps if you are in a mood for strange, unhinged music. For serious Bjork fans, this is a great dish, for anybody else, it's really worth taking a plunge in these whale fishing waters. It's not a safe, orderly and conventionally pleasant musical experience, but at the very least, it may inspire an intense (and verbose?) reaction, good or bad, but certainly strong.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good, October 8, 2005

By	Felt Mountain "BTGKPDAM" (Australia) - See all my reviews

Okay, firstly, there are many 1 and 5 star reviews on this album and not much in-between. The one-star reviewers probably haven't let the album grow on them and reach it's peak yet, but I am not sure how an intelligent persson can rate this album 1 star.......

The standouts on this album are Bath, Hunter Vessel, Storm and Cetacea, but, really, none of the tracks are BAD. I will now review the albums highlights:
The album opens with Gratitude and features the vocals of Will Oldham. The vocals seemed horrible to me at first, but now I think they are just good - but Bjorks are far better. The vocalists narrates a letter that he wrote, and the childrens choir on the third verse really climaxes the song. Track 2, Pearl, is a lot like Ancestors (Medulla). Ambergis March features the sho, bells, harpsichord and other percussion (eg drums). It is instrumental and sounds very Japanese, although I don't think it uses the pentatonic scale..... Bath is a very inacessible track and although one of my favourites, I can't really explain it. It features bells and sort of reminds me of a weirder version of Tori Amos' Bells For Her. Hunter Vessel reminded my of a sailboat for some reason - I love that funny brass section! (It returns in Vessel Shimenawa) Storm is the common favourite, and also one of my top-3. It is one of the three tracks on the album where you here Bjork, although you hear them the most here. Holographic Entrypoint is 10 minutes of Japanese singing by some guy with a percussion instrument - sticks or something. Cetacea is one of the more accessible songs from the album, but it is not accessible, from anyones point of view. And the album closes beautifully with Antarctic Return.

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