Medúlla by Björk is an album made of human voices. It would not be wrong to call Medúlla an a capella album, but I think it is a little bit misleading to think about the album in this way. At least in Japan, the term a capella strongly suggests that the human voice is used to mimic the sounds made by other instruments. However, in Medúlla, human voices do not mimic other instruments. Björk does collaborate with beatboxers Rahzel, Shlomo, and Dokaka, but still the beatboxing is very voicy, as if to emphasize that they are not trying to imitate.
The songs are not 100% experimental because they are meant to be pop. I think it is extremely important to make something pop, whether a song or a text. I can imagine how the commitment to pop made it more challenging but also more exciting to make a song out of human voices.
Maybe a better name for the style of Medúlla is not a capella but rather simply voice.
Maybe a better name for the style of Medúlla is not a capella but rather simply voice.
There is something irreducibly rude about the human voice. Without the voice, songs -- and especially pop songs -- tend to turn into polite music. The voice makes a song impolite. The point of doing a voice album is to make impolite music. And music needs to be impolite -- otherwise, it cannot be moving.
Who Is It - Three Voices.
The word "medúlla" means "marrow." I can't quite think of associations between music and the plant marrow. Bone marrow makes a lot more sense. To organize...
(1) Voice is the bone marrow of music. Without the voice, music becomes predictable.
(2) The bone marrow is the music of the body.
(3) The marrow of the bone melts into boiled water and forms the core flavor of soup.
After (3), the voices melt away into the air and the air starts to feel like one big soup for which many different voices form the core taste. With (2), the marrow is where blood is produced and transported for the body. It is thanks to the marrow that the heart can actually pump blood. In English it is common to say "my heart is in it" but perhaps after listening to Medúlla one should also feel comfortable saying "my marrow is in it." And, as for (1), again, the voice is like the place from which the rest of the song receives additional blood. Of course, hands are another unpredictable organ of music, but they are still conditioned by the limits of the instrument, even with the touchpad synthesizer. The voice is something which is really unruly, something which resists being fully controlled by singers and listeners alike.
These thoughts lead me into another conclusion. Medúlla is not about giving any sort of privilege to the voice. Such privileging occurs in, for example, vocal solos in classical music, where the singer alone (and perhaps occasionally the conductor with him or her) stands in the limelight, while the orchestra fades away into the background, at least from the listener's point of view.
Úm Akkeri
Since Medúlla is made of human voices which do not represent instruments, it opens afresh the question: Musically speaking, what is voice?
The word "medúlla" means "marrow." I can't quite think of associations between music and the plant marrow. Bone marrow makes a lot more sense. To organize...
(1) Voice is the bone marrow of music. Without the voice, music becomes predictable.
(2) The bone marrow is the music of the body.
(3) The marrow of the bone melts into boiled water and forms the core flavor of soup.
After (3), the voices melt away into the air and the air starts to feel like one big soup for which many different voices form the core taste. With (2), the marrow is where blood is produced and transported for the body. It is thanks to the marrow that the heart can actually pump blood. In English it is common to say "my heart is in it" but perhaps after listening to Medúlla one should also feel comfortable saying "my marrow is in it." And, as for (1), again, the voice is like the place from which the rest of the song receives additional blood. Of course, hands are another unpredictable organ of music, but they are still conditioned by the limits of the instrument, even with the touchpad synthesizer. The voice is something which is really unruly, something which resists being fully controlled by singers and listeners alike.
These thoughts lead me into another conclusion. Medúlla is not about giving any sort of privilege to the voice. Such privileging occurs in, for example, vocal solos in classical music, where the singer alone (and perhaps occasionally the conductor with him or her) stands in the limelight, while the orchestra fades away into the background, at least from the listener's point of view.
Úm Akkeri
Since Medúlla is made of human voices which do not represent instruments, it opens afresh the question: Musically speaking, what is voice?
