Almost every Björk fan will expect the star to glitz her live performances with quirks and oddities, and bring her experimental studio aesthetic to the stage for all to see. But when the Icelandic star dropped her 2003 documentary, no one anticipated it would include one of the most dazzling performances of Björk’s entire career: a low-key, acoustic rendition of her debut album-closer, “The Anchor Song.”
Going viral with more than 233,000 views, Music Man readers can watch the magic unfold in the video below…
Björk takes “The Anchor Song” to a small, wooden church planted in a serene, isolated field – the Strandarkirkja Church, on Iceland’s southwestern coast. Though the current church was built in 1888, the site’s history of worship goes all the way back to the 12th century, giving a mystical edge to the performance about to unfold within its doors.
Performing completely solo, Björk unleashes the grand sound of the church organ, weaving flawless lyrical melodies between each riff, with an unmissable sense of catharsis emerging as the song unfolds.
“The Anchor Song” was written in the summer of 1990, and comes with a curious backstory. As NME explains, “She rode her bicycle around the island with the express purpose of visiting all the hundreds of churches she’d heard about […] The religious places Björk found were the wildest. Lots of farmers had these little churches, like just one wooden room the size of the bedroom, and they’re really over-decorated.”
According to music legend, Björk asked a number of these farmers if she could play their church organ during her visits, and was surprised by how many said yes.
Hearing Björk return to one of these churches and perform the finished piece gives fans a rare glimpse of how this song originally sounded, years before the star took “The Anchor Song” to the studio and mutated it into the brass band jazz piece which wrapped up her first album, “Debut.”
This particular performance traces back to “Inside Björk” – a 2003 documentary following the star’s early career both in local Icelandic bands and as a “free-spirited solo artist,” scattered with complementary interview snippets with contemporaries including Missy Elliott, Elton John, and Radiohead frontman, Thom Yorke.
“The Anchor Song” is one of two live performances specially filmed for this documentary; the second being a take on “Generous Palmstroke” featuring the experimental musician, Zeena Parkins. Fans can check it out, and catch the entire 50-minute documentary in our second video above!
Björk’s hushed, churchside take on “The Anchor Song” is a reminder of her uncanny ability to turn simplicity into something otherworldly. If this intimate, viral performance moved you, discover more below — we’ve included useful links to the full video, background on Strandarkirkja and further reading on Björk’s enduring artistry.