Bjork-Björk Orkestral – With the Hamrahlíð Choir

Björk’s Björk Orkestral with the Hamrahlíð Choir captures the 24 October 2021 Harpa concert in Reykjavík, one of the Orkestral performances that also raised funds and awareness for the Icelandic women’s shelter Kvennaathvarfið. This set matters in Björk’s catalogue because it returns to the voice-first thinking of 2004’s Medúlla, with a 50-person Hamrahlíð Choir placing human breath, harmony and phrasing right at the centre.

The choir is conducted by Þorgerður Ingólfsdóttir, with Bergur Þórisson as musical director, adding organ and electronics. Rather than simply restaging familiar material, these arrangements recast songs from Medúlla, alongside pieces from Biophilia and Utopia, in a more overtly choral frame. Tracks such as “Pleasure Is All Mine,” “Cosmogony” and “New World” gain a different weight here, with the ensemble drawing out the tension in Björk’s music between voices, acoustic space and subtle electronic colour.

There is also a deeper personal connection behind the performance: Björk herself sang in the Hamrahlíð Choir as a teenager, and has worked with the group again in later projects including Utopia and the Cornucopia concerts. That history gives this recording more than archival interest. It feels like a live meeting between different eras of her work, and a particularly clear way to hear how central choral writing has become to her music.