Black Lake (song)

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"Black Lake"
Bloom remix artwork
Song by Björk
from the album Vulnicura
Released20 January 2015
Genre
Length10:08
LabelOne Little Indian
Songwriter(s)Björk
Producer(s)

"Black Lake" is a song by Icelandic musician Björk. It appears on her eighth studio album Vulnicura (2015). At ten minutes and eight seconds, it is the longest song to appear on one of her studio albums.

Like many tracks on Vulnicura, "Black Lake" prominently features string arrangements juxtaposed with electronic beats. Lyrically, the song takes inspiration from the dissolution of Björk's relationship with contemporary artist Matthew Barney. The liner notes of Vulnicura indicate the song takes place two months after the end of the relationship.[2]

Background[edit]

Following the end of promotion for her previous album Biophilia (2011) in 2012, Björk would begin recording Vulnicura the next year.[3] In the midst of the album's recording, she separated from her then-partner, American contemporary artist Matthew Barney,[4] the following months of which would influence the conception of "Black Lake" and the album as a whole.[5] The song's writing would commence three months after the separation following a trip by Björk to Japan, who remarked in an interview with The Reykjavík Grapevine that she was "insanely jetlagged" when she began writing the lyrics, often spending time in hot springs at a health retreat with her assistant and his boyfriend while working in Icelandic time.[6]

During the recording sessions for the song, the Haxan Cloak stated that it was "important that the vocal remains very up-front", yet remaining "intimate rather than overpowering", while Arca added that she "cried like a baby" when she first heard "Black Lake" and "Family" in their demo versions. The Haxan Cloak would mix the song at the Baltic Place studio in London, and following several revisions of Björk's vocals at the Sundlaugin studio in Mosfellsbær, Iceland, the recording of "Black Lake" would conclude by the beginning of spring in 2014.[7] After not attending the British premiere of her Björk: Biophilia Live film on 7 October 2014 due to working on Vulnicura, Björk confirmed a 2015 release date for the album, and thus "Black Lake" as well.[8][9]

Composition[edit]

Matthew Barney
Arca
The song's subject, Matthew Barney (left, pictured in 2007), and co-producer, Arca (right, pictured in 2019).

The longest song of its parent electronic and avant-garde album Vulnicura,[10][11][12] "Black Lake" has been described as having folk influences, as well as being a torch song.[13] Its lyrical composition describes the aftermath of her separation from ex-partner Matthew Barney,[14][15] with verses including lines such as "My soul torn apart / My spirit is broken"[16] and "Family was always / Our sacred mutual mission / Which you abandoned".[5] Björk herself has characterized the song as representing "forgiveness" and how she perceived the concept as the "only way to move forward emotionally" in the situation, as well as how each verse represents a different moment in time, in a similar fashion to her 1996 song "Possibly Maybe".[6]

Between each verse are fermatas that occasionally last up to nearly thirty seconds following a stiff suspension of the strings,[17] which according to Björk, represent "that one emotion when you’re stuck", adding that though difficult, "it’s also the only way to escape the pain, just going back and having another go, trying to make another verse."[6] The song initially begins with only a simple string accompaniment before electronic beats seep in and out of the audio,[11] in addition to a "pounding" rhythm appearing throughout the middle portion of the song.[18]

Release and promotion[edit]

Björk (center) performing "Black Lake" at the New York City Center on 1 April 2015.

Alongside the rest of Vulnicura, "Black Lake" was originally set to be released in March 2015 prior to the entire album leaking on 18 January of the same year.[19][20] Due to the leak, the album was released early two days afterward,[21][22] though no commercial singles were released. A music video for the song would premiere at Björk's eponymous exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in March 2015, prior to being released online three months following. On 1 October, a remix of "Black Lake" would be released on SoundCloud featuring Northern Irish producer Bloom, preceding a physical release of it and three other remixes from the album on 20 November.[23]

"Black Lake" would be included on the set list for her 2015 Vulnicura tour, which would begin on 7 March of the same year and featured a concert residency at New York City Center from 25 March–1 April.[24][25] The traveling virtual reality exhibit Björk Digital would additionally exhibit "Black Lake" in video format throughout its itinerary from 2016–2020.[26] Her 2021–23 Björk Orkestral tour over six years later would include the song on its set list as well.[27]

Critical reception[edit]

"Black Lake" was acclaimed by critics, with many deeming it a highlight of Vulnicura. Katherine St. Asaph and Jessica Hopper of Pitchfork considered the song to be the centerpiece of the album, referring to it as a "masterwork of balancing elements" and a "relational post-mortem", respectively.[14][28] The New York Times' Jon Pareles additionally stated that the song's "long-sustained chords" evoked "stretches of unbearable solitude", and that "Black Lake" was "harrowing and deliberate", as well as the "bleakest, bravest song" on Vulnicura.[16][29] Will Hermes of Rolling Stone praised the "knife-twist" lyricism of "Black Lake", and opined that it was Vulnicura's "most devastating number" as it "[unfurled] in slow-mo",[30] while Jason Lipshutz of Billboard remarked that with the song, Björk "[released] the fluid fury of a woman scorned."[5] Vogue's Alex Frank found that the "descending strings and bubbling techno beats" of "Black Lake" could make one "imagine falling into a body of water as dark as a computer screen."[31]

The Line of Best Fit's Robby Ritacco highlighted the song's "brooding tension" and praised it for "unleashing all five stages of grief in near unison",[32] whereas Vox's Kelsey McKinney commended Arca's beats that she found to "sonically stab" throughout "Black Lake", alongside the following tracks "Family" and "Notget".[33] Lindsay Zoladz of Vulture would praise both how "stingingly precise" each verse was in its detail, given how Björk's character was typically "distant" and "eccentric", as well as how she perceived the song as "soaring heart-first into an explosive crescendo".[34] Sam C. Mac of Slant Magazine found the song to be a "frigid pasture of Homogenic's glacial continent", its violinic sound "reminiscent of Mihály Víg’s hauntingly cyclical scores for Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr", and its 10-minute length "summoning the apocalyptic expansiveness of epics like The Turin Horse and Sátántangó."[12]

Music video[edit]

A music video was made for "Black Lake", directed by Andrew Thomas Huang and commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).[35] The video would be filmed in Iceland the previous summer approximately half an hour from Björk's home and in the midst of the night.[36][37] On the video's filming, Huang stated that "it was shot in a very traditional, Ingmar Bergman-stark way" and that the decision to tape it in a more traditional fashion was related to how the song was seen as being "about the death of her relationship and who she was."[37]

The video originally appeared exclusively in a theater at its respective MoMA exhibit, with dark cones covering the walls in a fashion intended to seem "cave-like" and reminiscent of the environment the video was shot in. The theater's walls and ceiling would additionally be covered in a waveform pattern of the octaves and volume of "Black Lake" using Autodesk software.[38] Leading up to its wider release on YouTube,[1] a trailer for the video was published, featuring Björk naked and lying in a dirt patch with her body spilt in half from right side to left.[35]

Synopsis[edit]

Björk at the music video's climax, where blue lava erupts around her.

The video first depicts Björk singing in a crevice in the volcanic wilderness while moving in a sluggish, halfhearted manner. Following scenes of her tripping and falling, she regains the ability to walk upright and beats her fist towards the ground and her chest while bursts of blue lava erupt behind her and the beats of the song gain speed. The video then fades and restarts with her wearing a pink cape and new costume while walking into the middle of a foggier and more vegetated valley prior to ending.[39][40]

Critical reception[edit]

The video was well-received by critics. Liv Siddall of Dazed said it was "the lovechild of a guild of some of the most talented and Björk-ready artists working today,"[41] while Rolling Stone's Jon Blistein called it "striking" and "beautifully intense".[39] Jamieson Cox of The Verge additionally remarked that the video made "for a draining, memorable viewing experience",[40] and Stereogum's Gabriela Tully Claymore added that the lack of any mask on Björk's face "[added] an extra layer of exposure to the already raw song".[42] Kristin Iversen of Brooklyn Magazine found the video "utterly remarkable" and able to "transport [her] to a head space that felt light years away" while seeing the first screening of it at the prior MoMA exhibition.[43]

Credits and personnel[edit]

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Vulnicura.[2]

  • Björk – vocals, songwriter, producer, composer, programming, vocal arranging, string arranging
  • Arca – producer, programming
  • The Haxan Cloak – mixing, programming
  • Mandy Parnell – mastering
  • Bart Migal – engineering
  • Chris Elms – engineering, recording
  • Frank Arthur Blöndahl Cassata – engineering, recording
  • Michael Pärt – recording supervisor
  • Júlía Mogensen – cello
  • Margrét Árnadóttir – cello
  • Sigurdur Bjarki Gunnàrsson – cello
  • Sigurgeir Agnarsson – cello

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Gordon, Jeremy (9 June 2015). "Björk Shares Intense, 10-Minute "Black Lake" Video". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  2. ^ a b Björk (20 January 2015). Vulnicura (Liner notes).
  3. ^ Savage, Emily (21 May 2013). "Björkphilia". San Francisco Bay Guardian. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  4. ^ "Bjork discusses the breakdown of relationship with artist Matthew Barney which inspired 'Vulnicura'". NME. 21 January 2015. Archived from the original on 24 April 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Lipshutz, Jason (21 January 2015). "Björk's New Album Has a 10-Minute Diss Track About Matthew Barney". Billboard. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
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