Björk’s Vulnicura remixed – part 2

Björk continues to make waves in the electronic scene: she laid down an eclectic mish-mash of Kate Bush, Death Grips and Jeremih at a surprise DJ set for Tri Angle's May birthday in New York, and Vulnicura continues to send heart-busting ripples through the music world. Now, we present the second in a three-part instalment of exclusive remixes by boundary-pushing producers and DJs selected by the Icelandic artist and her label One Little Indian. (The third in the series will be coming later this year.) Listen below as Texas-based grime producer Rabit is tasked with "History of Touches", London's UNTOLD turns his hand to Björk's fantastical "Lionsong", and Vulnicura collaborator The Haxan Cloak shares a dark wavelength with the singer on the haunting "Mouth Mantra". 

Björk – History of Touches (Rabit naked mix) 

"was so blown away when i heard him first , just the amount of character in the beats , adore his spartan fierce some sort of texan techno teddy boy thing : you can always tell its him !!  have so much enthusiasm to witness him grow , his best def yet to come ...... " – Björk

"The situation around this remix posed so many new questions for me. Björk wants to work with me? Is this for real? What could *i* do with a song from that album...and would it ever be good enough? How would I know when it's done, and mostly, how am I going to do this sitting in my chair at home, don't *real* musicians use studios? By the time my track was done, most of my questions had been answered. I just went with my instinct and trusted the results. I tried to find that thing that she recognises in my music, turn to it, and let it out. I hope people feel it." – Rabit

Björk – Lionsong (Choral Mix) featuring UNTOLD

"featuring the icelandic choir that was on biophilia and i edited a beat to it : an old rare song from untold called flexible : kinda always fall flat for beats like this , that have a sense of humour , slapstick and played with sticks and stones but still electronic and are no genre : not punk not house not charleston not rave  ... this is one of the characters lionsong could be , the hyper outgoing one , he was kind enough to be up for this experiment" – Björk

"Early last year Björk emailed saying she had something she’d like me to listen to. I had a show in NYC soon after so I visited her studio where she played me an early version of ‘Lionsong’ from Vulnicura. In this alternate version the vocal floats above an amazing choral arrangement, the rhythm driven by a tuned percussion sample from one of my early tracks. I caught up with Björk again in NYC this spring after seeing her performing the album live at City Center where we confirmed releasing the 'Choral mix.'" – UNTOLD

Björk – Mouth Mantra (The Haxan Cloak)

"after bobby ( the haxan cloak ) had mixed vulnicura ( and made one beat ) i was kinda keen asking him if there was any song he´d be up for taking further as a remix and he said mouth mantra ... it was humbling for me to see one person take on like a whole album of mine like that , listen to it like thousand times and curious after him being soaked in it for months , where he thought he could take it further ?  i am enjoying extremely this version live now as he is playing it w me on this summers festivals : it just takes off rocket style ha ha ha ha ha i almost forgot singing last time we played it" – Björk

“I’ve always loved ‘Mouth Mantra’ since the time I heard the first version when we were doing the mixing - there’s something so satisfying about that goth breakdown section in the middle. We went through a few different iterations of it when we were mixing the record. Some where the beats were super loud and bombastic, some where the strings took more centre stage (we ended on a wonderful compromise of all these things). There’s something about ‘Mouth Mantra’ that really appeals to my sensibilities, so I always flirted with the idea of remixing it. When it came time to start thinking about prepping for the live shows, Bjork asked me if there were any songs I’d like to remix for playing live – instantly I thought of this one. I wanted to keep the core of the song but just really amp up the drama and intensity to 11 (surprise surprise). I then decided to refine the live remix for a more studio/headphone listening environment, so that’s what you hear now. I actually finished it on a plane last week and was texting Björk while I was finishing it. We were having a laugh about eschewing time zones and being ‘off-grid’ in all senses of the phrase, so at one point we came up with, “Mouth Mantra - ‘Haxan Cloak acid grid dissolve international time zone mix,’ but, ‘The Haxan Cloak remix’ just rolled off the tongue a bit easier.” – The Haxan Cloak

Listen to the first set by Mica Levi, Lotic and more over here