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making of bachelorette
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Album Version |
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Radio Edit |
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Video Version |
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Demo version |
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Alec Empire Ice Princess & The Killer Whale
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Alec Empire Hypermodern Jazz Mix
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Howie Spread Mix
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Mark Bell Optimisim Remix |
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Mark Bell Zip Mix
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Mark Bell Blue Mix
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RZA Remix |
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Groove Rider Jeep Mix
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Brodsky Quartet Version |
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QUOTE |
Interview by David
Hemingway. Reprinted by kind permission
of Record Collector. |
Because I wanted the
lyrics to be so epic, I got my friend Sjón - who's a poet in Iceland -
to write them. We sat together at the kitchen table and drank a lot of
red wine and I told him the whole story for hours and days and he
wrote the words from that story. |
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MY
STORY
|
by Isobel the
Bachelorette |
One day I happened
upon a big book buried deep in the ground. I had been walking through
the forest, searching for mandrake and the rare mushroom of
everlasting love. Few books find their way to my part of the world so
I picked it up and dusted the earth of its massive cover. From beneath
the dirt appeared a faded photograph of a young woman.
The young woman was I.
Despite the alarming fact that my own image was on the cover, I clung
to the hope that the book contained a tale of a knight in shining
armour and a fair lady waiting to be rescued from a blackhearted ogre.
I tried to picture myself on a dark winter’s night, sitting in front
of the fire, immersed in an ancient adventure. I opened the
book, trembling with fear and excitement. The pages were blank.
I was about to cry out in a mixture of disappointment and relief when
my gaze touched the paper where one would expect to find the first
paragraph. To my surprise the book had started writing itself - as if
by magick:
“One day when I was
walking through the forest, searching for mandrake and the rare
mushroom of everlasting love, I happened upon a big book buried deep
in the ground.”
What it wrote was what I was doing there and then. It seemed to follow
my every move. “Well,” I thought, “it’s an automatic diary. I guess
that means it’s up to me to create the story as I go on living.” Deep
down the thought saddened me. Who would ever want to go through page
after page about someone like me? My life was so simple it would never
make for a good read. But then a new sentence appeared: “I had to
leave the forest.”
And another one: “I realised the book was not merely recounting what I
did, it was telling me what I should do. It was time I left my house
and started exploring the world.”
I did exactly what the book told me to and the forest opened up to me
like never before. It put on a great show of colours, movement and
sounds - as if it wished to make sure it stayed rooted in my memory in
all its dazzling beauty.Now, I was ready to leave.
I got on the train and was on my way to the city. The countryside
disappeared in a flash. I sat in the compartment reading about my
journey, the narration always being one step ahead of what was
happening to me. The train slid like a manic giant slug on its
glistening tracks. The villages became towns, the towns became
suburbs, the suburbs became the CITY.
Out the window I saw its skyscrapers grow from the horizon like giant
fingers trying to poke holes in the firmament. As soon as the train
pulled into the station and the busy crowd had pushed me out on the
street, I consulted the book about what I was to do next. A sentence
wrote itself out: “I explored the city like the forest before.” So,
that is what I did.
Strangely enough the city did not scare me. The buildings reminded me
of the tall pine trees of the forest; the light in the windows
glimmered as the snow on their branches. The cars rushed along the
streets like small animals busily preparing for the winter. And the
neon lights? Well, they were my northern lights.
The days passed and the pages filled up with words. I followed the
book’s writing like a recipe for an alchemist’s elixir of life. It had
told me it was on this condition the next sentence would appear, and
that if I did not respect the rule my beautiful adventure would vanish
like a dream. It was an easy rule to obey. The book was taking me
places beyond my imagination. I did whatever it asked of me.
But one thing had started to disturb me. The blank pages were becoming
frightfully few. I could not but wonder how my story would end. I
feared for the worst and started thinking about it day and night.
Would I vanish? Or die?
I was seriously thinking about breaking up my relationship with the
book when it came to my rescue. It spelled it out for me word by word.
It had just been doing what all good books do; they create suspense in
their last pages. I laughed out loud where I stood on the edge of a
high rise in the city’s centre. To celebrate having regained my trust
the book wrote on the top of the last page: “I took my story to Clark
- publisher of fine books, on the corner of Easy Street and 23rd.”
I took my story to Clark - Publisher of Fine Books on the corner of
Easy Street and 23rd.
Once in Clark’s humble office I handed him my book. He offered me a
seat in a comfortable chair across his desk and I watched him read my
story. I could see how the words moved him, how he responded to the
events as if he was going through them himself. As his eyes glided
down the last page the final sentence and conclusion to my tale
appeared: “I knew my heart was his and that I would love him forever
and ever … “
THE END |
|
QUOTE |
source : Paper,
September 1997 |
So Isobel decides to
return to the city and to take a train, like in the 30's, in South
America somewhere. She decides to confront love with love and
confronts the cowards that don't have the guts to fall in love with
love. So you see - it's like Isobel has returned. |
|
QUOTE |
Musician, december 1997 |
There's a lot of
story-telling going on, a lot of brutal, in-your-face stories. One of
them is this kind of Wuthering Heights epic. (Puts one hand
melodramatically over her heart.) The first song in this epic was
"Human Behaviour". The second one is "Isobel". I guess this one is the
sequel. |
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PICS
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single cover art photoshoot |
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Shoot
me!, shoot me! Only kidding, but this is Meester Fly's sense of
humour. He was excited to be present at the photo-session for
Bacherolette. The session was directed by Paul White of MeCo and
the photographer was Toby McFarlan-Pond. The session was done at
Studio Regina in Reykjavik in September 97. |
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Paul
and Toby not quite sure of Mr. Fly's intentions with that camera. |
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Toby's
work incorporates certain amount of skilled labour. |
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Toby
showing the skills of the trade, and at the same time looking for
Mr. Fly. |
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A
camera. |
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i'm a fountain of blood
in the shape of a girl
you're bird on the brim
hypnotized by the whirl
drink me - make me feel real
wet your beak in the stream
the game we're playing is life
love is a two way dream
leave me now - return tonight
the tide will show you the way
if you forget my name
you will go astray
like a killer whale trapped in a bay
i'm a path of cinders
burning under your feet
you're the one who walks me
i'm your one way street
i'm a whisper in water
a secret for you to hear
you're the one who grows distant
when i beckon you near
i'm a tree that grows hearts
one for each that you take
you're the intruder's hand
i'm the branch that you break |
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dec
1997. cd in jewelcase
01.
bachelorette
- radio edit
02.
my
snare
03.
scary
04.
bachelorette - howie
spread mix |
|
dec
1997. cd in jewelcase
01.
bachelorette - mark bell
optimism
02.
bachelorette
- mark bell
zip remix
03.
bachelorette
- mark bell
blue remix
04.
bachelorette
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dec
1997. cd in jewelcase
01.
bachelorette
- rza remix
02.
bachelorette
- alec hypermodern
jazz
03.
bachelorette
- alec
empire the ice princess and the killer whale remix
04.
bachelorette
- grooverider jeep
mix |
|
REVIEW |
director-file.com |
The fantastic worlds
Michel Gondry and Björk created over the span of six videos have
centered on one theme: nature, of her world, our world, and its
people. In their as yet final collaboration, Gondry and Björk amass
their stories into a grand finale. Bachelorette is the story of a
girl’s story. As she remarks in the tragedy’s introduction, “One day I
found a big book buried deep in the ground. I opened it, but all the
pages were blank. Then, to my surprise, it started writing itself:
‘One day, I found a big book buried deep in the ground...’”
Björk, as Bachelorette, follows her own autobiography, My Story, into
the city as it writes her story, one step ahead of each event. She
finds true love the moment Victor, the publisher, reads, “I knew that
my heart was his and that I would love him forever and ever . . .”
After its publication, gobs of people become entranced in the story.
Her books sell endlessly. Success is at hand for the girl from the
forest. Victor and Bachelorette then strike a deal to get her story on
Broadway.
But as the song’s grinding beat portends, this story has no bloodless
ending: Mother Nature wants her book back. On opening night of her
play, everything unravels. As the show progresses, it loops inside of
itself - another one of Gondry’s fractals (see “Let Forever Be” or
“Les Jupes”). Victor, sitting in the audience, is disgusted and
becomes estranged from the entire affair. Outside, tabloids announce
their break-up, writing, “Bachelorette finds herself wandering in the
woods.”
As the story unfolds, words literally disappear from every copy of My
Story, forcing readers to dump their books onto the street in
frustration. Soon the publisher vanishes completely out of the book
Bachelorette found in the forest. In a visually stunning move, Gondry
presents this outcome in reality: sitting in the audience, Victor
literally becomes a shrub. By the same token disappears the audience
and eventually the entire play itself from under Björk’s feet. When
the foliage threatens to take her life as well, she surrenders the
book, and returns to whence she came: the forest.
One emerges from first viewing the video as if from a motion picture.
Many questions arise: What was the purpose of this book in the
Bachelorette’s life? Was the Bachelorette merely a character in her
own story? Who is the author of this story: the Bachelorette? God?
Nature? Eventually Björk’s character returns to the forest; perhaps
this is an interpretation of our lives on Earth?
Nevertheless, Michel Gondry’s genius is realized in the tragedy of the
Bachelorette. In the black-and-white real world, Gondry tells the
story in the form of an early motion picture. Inside the theater,
vivid colors create a separate reality as the story is told in
real-time. The book’s prophetic tale is key in the play’s
presentation. The words are omnipresent: projected onto the trees,
under Björk’s footsteps, inside the stairs to the publishing company,
etc. As Bachelorette’s world closes in, each successive part of the
play is told in ever smaller scale. After discarding the book, Björk’s
character is instantly free and back in the boundless - and colorful -
woodland. |
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