Performer Notes
- Personnel includes: Bjork (vocals, keyboards); Gavin Wright, Wilf Gibson, Peter Oxer, Roger Garland, Jim McLeod, Ben Cruft (violin); George Robertson, Peter Lale, Roger Chase, Bill Hawkes (viola); Martin Loveday, Helen Liebmann, Paul Kegg, John Tunnell (cello); Helen Tunstall (harp); Alasdair Malloy (harmonica); Yasuhiro Kobayashi (accordian); Jeff Bryant (horns); Mark Bell (keyboards, programming, drum programming); Guy Sigsworth (keyboards, clavichord, organ); Chris Laurence, Paul Pritchard (bass); Steve Henderson (timpani); Frank Ricotti (military snare); Trevor Morais (electronic drums); Markus Dravs (programming, drum programming); Richard Brown, Marius DeVries, Howie B. (programming); The Icelandic String Octet.
- Producers: Bjork, Mark Bell, Guy Sigsworth, Howie B.
- HOMOGENIC was nominated for a 1998 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.
- "Bachelorette was nominated for the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.
- Personnel: Bjrk (keyboards); Helen Tunstall (harp); Una Sveinbjarnardttir, Mark Berrow, Peter Oxer, Benedict Cruft, James McLeod , Maciej Rakowski, Perry Montague-Mason, Wilfred Gibson, Sif Tulinius, Sigrun Edvaldsdottir, Sigurbjorn Bernhardsson, Vaughan Armon, Roger Garland, Gavyn Wright (violin); Hrund Hardardttir, George Robertson , Roger Chase, Moeidur Anna Sigurdardottir, Bill Hawkes, Peter Lale (viola); John Tunnell, Sigurdur Bjarki Gunnarsson, Jon R. Ornolfsson, Paul Kegg, Helen Liebmann, Martin Loveday (cello); Alasdair Alloy (harmonica); Yasuhiro Kobayashi (accordion); Michael Thompson , Jeffrey Bryant , Jeff Bryant (horns); Guy Sigsworth (clavichord, keyboards); Mark Bell (keyboards, programming, drum programming); Trevor Morais (drums, electronic drums); Frank Ricotti (snare drum); Alasdair Malloy (glass armonica); Stephen Henderson (timbales, timpani); Markus Dravs (programming, drum programming); Richard Brown, Howie B, Danny Joe Brown Band, Marius de Vries (programming).
- Audio Mixers: Howie B; Mark "Spike" Stent.
- Photographer: Nick Knight.
- Arrangers: Deodato; Bjrk.
- As one of modern music's most enigmatic and consistently entertaining personalities, Bjork has never shied away from the edge. Whether making straight ahead dance music, exploratory modern rock, or even show-tune-caliber drama, her vision has always remained innovative and original. Her voice jumps, in the space of a syllable, from a kitten-like purr to a banshee's howl, and is never anything less than captivating. HOMOGENIC, her latest musical endeavor, finds her plunging headlong into electronica, a form well-suited to her intense, offbeat phrasing and tone.
- From the skittering breakbeats and ghostly wails of the opening "Hunter" to the all-out electronic crash that is "Pluto," HOMOGENIC explores the melding of human and machine. The drama of "Bachlorette" finds a lush, rich string section following a tripping electronic beat, giving way to the Icelandic wonder's trademark wail. The juxtaposition of thoroughly modern sounds with conventional elements, such as symphonic arrangements, pipe organ, and accordion, form a central theme, to which HOMOGENIC's title undoubtedly refers. On HOMOGENIC, the traditional and the technological find their meeting point in Bjork's soaring, otherworldly voice.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (10/16/97, pp.103-104) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...she leaves home and investigates love's bumpier back roads....celebrates difference and challenges listeners to explore the joys of contradiction with open ears and vivid imagination....one of the boldest--and most exciting--albums of the year."
Spin - "[A]n eerily sustained work that ambitiously shares the methods and auras of contemporary design, film, and theater; and it represents progress on nobody's terms except Bjrk's admittedly fanciful own."
Spin (1/98, p.86) - Ranked #4 on Spin's list of the "Top 20 Albums Of The Year."
Spin (10/97, p.135) - 9 (out of 10) - "...the 31-year-old Reykjavik native's new album delves deeply into hip-hop, flies in orchestras, and proves that the electronic generation will yield much more than a string of dance epiphanies..."
Entertainment Weekly (9/26/97, pp.76-77) - "...may be Bjork's most audacious move in a career filled with them....On roughly half the album she and coproducer Mark Bell...take two seemingly incompatible genres--techno and classical--and weld them together. It's like sneaking a boom box into a chamber recital and seeing what happens..." - Rating: A
Melody Maker (12/20-27/97, pp.66-67) - Ranked #33 on Melody Maker's list of 1997's "Albums Of The Year."
Village Voice (2/24/98) - Ranked #9 in the Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
NME (Magazine) (12/20-27/97, pp.78-79) - Ranked #15 in NME's 1997 Critic's Poll.
NME (Magazine) (9/20/97, p.54) - 9 (out of 10) - "...her third solo album, HOMOGENIC, is probably her most weird, it is also her best....It is here...that Bjork has delivered her most emotional, highly-charged and groovy record, as well as a stinging triumph for the spirit of adventure."
Pitchfork (Website) - "Lyrically, the record picks up themes she had already explored on her previous two albums -- loneliness; sexual desire; desperate, even defiant love; the feeling of being a fish out of water -- but her writing is more vivid than ever before."
