"'Hidden Place' is sort of about how two people can create a paradise just by uniting. You've got an emotional location that's mutual. And it's unbreakable. And obviously it's make-believe. So, you could argue that it doesn't exist because it's invisible, but of course it does. And it's sort of a one-nil situation."

Written by Björk, Guy Sigsworth & Mark Bell. Produced by Björk. Hidden Place was not so hidden as it was the first single to be taken from the fourth studio album Vespertine (2001). The video marked also a new beginning as M/M Paris co directed the video with Inez & Vinoodh, and went on to collaboratively create the visuals and layout for the whole Vespertine album and a sequence of singles.

→ Guy Sigsworth bio & interview
→ Mark Bell interview (where he among things talks about his collaboration with Björk)
→ M/M Paris

QUOTE

I guess the microbeats were from me getting heavily into my laptop and just trying to enjoy the music from its speakers. The songs on Vespertine are introvert. I tried to make it frozen, winterlike. It's an inside album, a domestic album, I had loads and loads of beats for 'Hidden Place' but it still wasn't up enough. Matthew Herbert came for a visit in the studio and offered to do it. He ran away to his studio and came back after a few hours later with a DAT.

QUOTE

I guess 'Hidden Place' is sort of about how two people can create a paradise just by uniting. You've got an emotional location that's mutual. And it's unbreakable. And obviously it's make-believe. So, you could argue that it doesn't exist because it's invisible, but of course it does. And it's sort of a one-nil situation. Or, if you believe in something high enough - I mean, maybe at first when you mention it, and you talk about it and it doesn't exist. It might be artificial, but you just keep on believing in it and it grows strong. It'll become real, you know. And I guess that's something, sort of the human spirit conquering the dullness and boredom.

INTERVIEW

Is the "Verspertine" CD package and video your first project for Björk?
Our collaboration with her started in 1998, when she commissioned us together with photographers Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for the sleeve of her compilation of videos, "Volumen". A year later she asked us again to think about her book project "Björk" as designers/editors, which is soon to be published by Little-I in the UK and Bloomsbury in the US. Then came the video, which was originally planned for a song from the "Dancer in the Dark" soundtrack. She was cherishing the project, but decided to postpone it a bit as she was writing new material she felt would fit even better with our initial ideas. It then became the video for "Hidden Place", the first single from "Vespertine". At the very end, she decided to ask the four of us to do the sleeve, as well.

How do you approach a project like this?
Like any other project--same involvement, same interest. Our collaboration with her has been growing naturally and with mutual confidence over the years.

Did you deal with Björk directly or did art direction come from Elektra, the record label?
Elektra is only the licensed label for the U.S. She commissions everything by herself, and is very instinctive... no control freak.

What was she like to work with?
Genius, genuine, generous, and above all, trustful.

What was it like co-directing the video for "Hidden Place"?
Spending four days in an empty, frozen 10,000 square foot studio shooting close-ups of a face and some liquids pouring over a mask was an unforgettable experience. Then spending days and days and days in some dark rooms looking at ever-changing-color-balance TV monitors in the back of an operator. Eating bad sandwiches, crisps and sushi.

Where did the idea come from to shoot the video for "Hidden Place" without any cuts? Close-up shots panning around the face fit in very nicely with the theme of the song, as well.
We always wanted to get as close to her as we could, as we all felt she had never been portrayed as the "real" and beautiful woman she is. This is somehow taboo, to observe a pop star with no makeup from a distance of half an inch. Then the idea of the liquid works as a visualization of all possible emotions pulsating and circulating in her very busy brain. The loop idea was a main point for us as well, trying to extend the usual time frame of pop video super-fast editing, to make it hypnotising, mesmerising and irritating, like an eternally burning fireplace.

Did any good stories come out during the making of the project?
She cooks good pasta with cream and caviar and sing-a-long Boney M tunes.

REVIEW

The return of pop's last white witch throws up no great surprises, which is just fine. The chief new flavour here appears to be Björk's full immersion in some nebulous prog-folk realm of fairies and pixies. Breathless with wild-eyed wonder, the Icelandic one sings of finding solace and sanctuary in secret hideaways and pagan forests. Even the florid sleeve draws from the same fertile hinterland of ripe imagery, looking like it was scribbled by a team of stoned goblins in about 1873. The tune, you say? Who needs an actual tune when the birth of Wicca-tronica is upon us? Burn the witch! Burn the witch! full article

REVIEW

Not so long ago, the government of Iceland gave Bjork her own island in recognition of her services to music – and the ethereal landscape seems to have affected her rather. This is ethereal. Seriously fairy. What little percussion there is isn’t at all normal and is subdued almost immediately by very spooky, female-Yorke-esque vocals and just general weirdness. As a chill-out tune it’s superb. As casual listening it’s lacking something, i.e., casualness, but hey. It’s perfect Bjork, really, and the best work she’s done since the Dancer in the Dark soundtrack. Pretty good, actually, once you relax enough to let it penetrate…  full article