The first one was by the photographer Rineke Dijkstra at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Beautiful portraits of teenagers and their trends, their development into the adult life, their innocence, new mothers, young soldiers… “Whether adolescents, soldiers, or new mothers, Dijkstra is fascinated by people in states of significant transition”.

Yesterday, I went to the International Center of Photography, in NYC. There was a good exhibiton about the sensationalist Weegee and his crime photos. A good portrait of New York City in the 40's... but what staye in my memory was the Magnum Contact Sheets exhibition. So good.

I loved Trent Parke's photos of swimmers in Australia.

Last but not least, I went to the Asian Society on Park Avenue to discover another incredible Chinese artist, Wu Guanzhong, (1919–2010) one of the most important artists of twentieth-century China. Who would say that revolution could look  so simple?

"Whenever I am at an impasse, I turn to natural scenery. In nature I can reveal my true feelings to the mountains and rivers: my depth of feelings toward the motherland and my love toward my people. I set off from my own native village and Lu Xun’s native soil."

Ink on rice paper. So simple yet so beautiful.

It was a fantastic journey from the moment we entered the venue. The stage was a rounded, almost communal platform, with all the new instruments created for this album on it (Gameleste, Sharpsichord,the 11 stringed pendulum, the Tesca Coil..) Check out this website to know more about these instruments, it’s truly inventinve and amazing! Also watch this video with Max Weisel, the man behind the machines during the show.

Above, you had several screens, along the whole circled stage. I felt I was entering some place sacred- Bjork’s songs were being played, without vocals, by the Gameleste ( a combination of Gamelon and Celeste) and the MIDI controlled pipe-organ, it was all very quiet and there was a sense of curiosity among everybody who was there.

The show started at 7pm sharp, and suddenly David Attenborough’s voice echoes all over the hall- “Welcome to Biophilia”. What a surprising way to start the show. The audience had to be really silent, to be able to hear all that was being said.

On stage were Bjork, the  20-member Graduale Nobili, an Icelandic young women’s choir,  drummer Manu Delago and harpist Zeena Parkins.

I can’t recall the order of the songs.  Mostly Bjork and her crew presented the new album, and occasionally some songs form previous albums (I loved the song with e.e. cummings poem “It may not only be so”, which by coincidence, I have also put into a song. The vocals on this songs were incredible, and extremely hard to sing. The girls  choir was just incredible). The show ended with the song from “Volta”, “Declare Independence”, where Bjork declared: “For this song you should stand up and dance”.

What I can recall is that the whole show was really a journey into a natural world, where among all the technology, Bjork’s voice and the barefooted Icelandic Girl Choir guided us throughout the evening. Besides the Tesca Coil, the I felt I had entered a place where time did not pass, it felt like we were children, in the space, waiting very eagerly for what would come next. The videos and animations on the screen were beautiful and complemented the whole music, with images from the iPad apps,  vulcanos,  the earth, viruses. The colors, the dresses Bjork and the girls were wearing, really created this interplanetary vibe, blue, gold, red, rounded shapes, they all looked like magical creatures.

I loved the combination of voices and the vocal arrangements- they were pretty dissonant at times, you could hear all these clusters of voices (it’s kind of my dream, to have so many voices creating all these textures, in a live performance).  It was thrilling to see the girls from the choir dancing, singing amazingly, waving their heads, having a great time…and above all it was beautiful to see how Bjork is such a generous musician on stage. Despite the fact she’s like the sun, where  everything revolves around,  I did not feel  the show was only about her: instead, all the parts were important, everyone had a role, there was a very communal vibe on stage, a lot of joy and love.

I love the new album “Biophilia”. I love the  apparent simplicity in the arrangements, yet  so powerful. I love how Bjork’s voice sounds better than ever, full, rounded and natural.

This was one of the best shows I have seen in the last years. It was all about the music, its content, very deep and yet not artificial.

@

BAMcafé

Peter Jay Sharp Building

Brooklyn Academy of Music

BAMcafé

30 Lafayette Avenue

Brooklyn, NY 11217

9pm

!FREE ENTRANCE!

Sara Serpa- voice

André Matos- guitar

Kris Davis- piano

Aryeh Kobrinsky-bass

Tommy Crane- drums

For more info click here.  Hope to see you there!

Thank you for your support,

Sara