Photo: Saga Sig
"Thank you for your patience," blushes Bjork in that wonderfully Icelandic angelic tone, before rapturous whoops and cheers from a sold-out Alexandra Palace. It's the final show of her two year Biophillia tour and the event is being filmed for DVD release. As a result several songs are performed twice until they're just right.
Most other gigs would see jeers and cups of beer (and God knows what else) hurled towards the stage, but Bjork is a perfectionist - and we love her for that. This is one of the few artists with the demographic who are likely to scream in ectasy for a voice-over introduction from Sir David Attenborough. Make of that what you will.
With the higher tiers of Ally Pally curtained off and the stage set up centrally in the round, Bjork is almost close enough to touch. Add that to grand sense of occasion and we find ourselves with an unmatchable atmosphere. The lights die down, a Tesla coil is lowered and the crowd erupts as the world's last natural eccentric takes to stage in full wig and gown to dance around electricity with her army of a choir.
Whereas many artists of her standing just fly around the world, get on stage and roll out the hits, Bjork is brilliant when it comes to translating her ideas into every medium and dimension. Tonight is not 'the Best of Bjork', but more 'Bjork at her Best', as Biophillia's tribute to the natural world bursts into life.
The full realisation of the album as it's translated into an experience makes an awe-inspiring spectacle. The visuals and choreography for 'Thunderbolt', 'Moon' and 'Virus' make the tracks fully immersive, while older fan favourites 'Isobel', 'Possibly Maybe' and 'Where Is The Line' are embellished to sit comfortably alongside her newer material (and they've never sounded better).
Any cynics who shrugged off the album as a prententious experiment would be quickly correctly by the frenzied performance and ecstatic reception of 'Crystalline' and 'Mutual Core', which will undoubtedly go down as Bjork classics for decades to come. Even the shizophrenic jitter of 'Náttúra' (heightened by the incredible drumming of Manu Delago) is treated less as a rarity and more of a celebration.
"If you want to get up and dance, then don't stop yourself," she beams, before dedicating a rave-driven ending of 'Declare Independence' to Greenland and Ally Pally explodes into movement and pop's perfectionist leaves the stage satisfied.
So that's it for now - she may be gone for quite some time. We may have to wait a while for her to grace us with her glorious presence again. I know we're patient, but please don't be too long...
Bjork played:
1. Óskasteinar
2. Thunderbolt
3. Moon
4. Crystalline
5. Hollow
6. Dark Matter
7. Hidden Place
8. Mouth's Cradle
9. Isobel
10. Virus
11. Sonnets/Unrealities XI (twice)
12. Possibly Maybe
13. Where Is the Line?
14. Mutual Core
15. Cosmogony (twice)
16. Solstice
Encore:
17. Sacrifice (twice)
18. One Day
19. Náttúra
Encore 2:
20. Declare Independence
Below: Bjork live at Alexandra Palace, London
