| Björk performed at the Olympic Stadium Now hardly anyone will believe that in 1989 the concerts of Bjork Gundsmutdottir (which in a crude translation from Icelandic means something like Bereza Gundsmutovna) and her then band Sugarcubes in Leningrad did not take place due to the ridiculous number of tickets sold. When you see kilometer-long queues of people eager to join the work of the star, entwined around the sports complex that is your Ouroboros, this story seems completely incredible. Times are changing: if only by the number and reaction of the public that rushed to the concert (about 10 thousand), it is already clear that the event will be included in the register of musical events of the season as a landmark.
While the audience was drawn into the hall, bypassing numerous anti-terrorist cordons, a proud and relatively young girl, known under the stage name Peaches, jumped and cavorted on stage as a warm-up. Translated, this means “peaches,” but in the context of her work it seems that it means something much more slangy and indecent. The music of Peaches is simple and catchy, like an orange, rap (or whatever it’s called) with an unimaginable amount of obscenity in funny lyrics, undreamed of even by Sergei Shnurov, rap that, despite its relevance, evokes nostalgic memories of the first albums of the group “Malchishnik” and the wonderful pornographic pop of 20 Fingers. However, the galloping and dressing up of the gifted artist was received rather coolly: after all, that was clearly not what good people came here for.
Björk performed accompanied by a musical team, each member of which, individually, could have held the audience’s attention throughout the entire concert: harpist Zina Parkins, the Icelandic National String Octet and the electronic duo Matmos from America, quite famous in music lovers’ circles, were present on stage. The range of sounds coming from the stage, according to the ancient Scandinavian tradition laid down by Ingmar Bergman, ranged from a whisper to a scream, from the shimmer of a harp to an almost noisy computer delirium. It all started with the composition I've Seen It All, memorable from Lars von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark" - apparently so that "you have no doubt that this is the person you came to listen to." as Vladimir Vysotsky said before his speeches. There really was no doubt left, although most of the spectators were forced to spend the concert in the position of the visually impaired worker Selma: the action was not broadcast on the usual monitors, and therefore the visiting celebrity had to be viewed from all points of the “Olympic” in no more than life-size. Instead of Björk actually on the white sheet of the screen, every now and then volcanically awakening above the heads of the musicians, they played an impressive video with animals, representatives of small northern peoples and computer mutants: this is probably what the average program of the educational Discovery channel looks like in the eyes of a TV viewer who has been poisoned by shamanic fly agarics . From time to time, flammable geysers of gas flames rose in a whimsical order around the singer, and they looked, no matter how you looked at them, very beautiful. The songs were also very beautiful and well known to the general public - the concert took place as part of the tour to support the Greatest Hits collection.
The impression from the concert, despite the obvious historical value and scale of what was happening, still remained rather strange. It seemed that if you had a chance to see all this on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater (where Björk’s performance was planned a couple of years ago) or the Palace of Culture. Gorbunov - and diamond tears would roll from his eyes and flow until the final “thank you” sounded from the stage. A firefly in a matchbox is alive and bright, but moved to a TV box it looks strange. It is completely unclear what to do with such music on such a scale. Dance? Jump? Raise your hands up? Just sit in your seat, shaking your head in bliss? Not clear. Björk herself does not answer this question.|
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