I guess we already knew that Björk is living in a braver, newer world than the rest of us.
But a recent post on the Wired website revealed just how cutting-edge she is. The article describes the reacTable, a “tangible music interface.” The first two sentences kinda made me drool:
“The reacTable, a new instrument that lets musicians manipulate sounds by moving glowing blocks on a round, transparent table, is wowing festival audiences after it was hand-picked by Björk for use on the singer’s summer tour. The modular synthesizer mashes up shades of Tron, laser hockey and classic Moogs using open-source reacTivision software and an under-the-hood camera to track blocks that, when added, rotated or moved, combine to produce beeps, whoops and soaring synth lines.”
Leave it to Björk to popularize something like this, right? She’s sorta the patron saint of the off-kilter.
As you’ll see from this demo, the reacTable is every music geek’s dream:
According to Damian Taylor, the engineer on Björk’s latest album, Volta, “She’s really into it. She’s always been into people who come up with something totally fresh, and she really enjoys bringing out things that people haven’t seen before and giving a platform to really new ideas.”
Well, duh.
If you needed more evidence that Björk knows stunning when she sees it, here’s some:
Meanwhile, the winner of Björk’s recent fan video competition proves that Björk’s vision may be unique, but she hasn’t cornered the market on weird:
