Björk's "Biophilia" tour, which kicked off in Manchester, UK in July 2011 and has since traveled to Reykjavik, Iceland, New York, Buenos Aires, Paris, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, has finally arrived in Tokyo. This is her only Asian tour, with only three shows on July 31, August 3, and 6. Each city on this tour accommodated less than 2,000 people, and the Tokyo performance, "Biophilia Tokyo," had an even smaller audience of 800. For the final performance on August 6, long lines formed in the tropical night, hoping for premium tickets. It was at the Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) in Odaiba, Tokyo, where Björk delivered a heartfelt thank-you to the staff from the stage during the latter half of the concert, saying, "Thank you so much for making my dream come true." Upon entering the venue, the Geo-Cosmos, a 6-meter-diameter, 13-ton light-emitting device that realistically projected the Earth shining in space with over 10 million pixels of high resolution, floated in the darkness directly above the stage, projecting artificial lights twinkling across the night-time Earth. The stage was shaped like the letter D, with the audience surrounding it. At Fuji Rock on July 27th and 28th, Björk and her 14-member Icelandic female chorus, Graduale Nobili, lined up symmetrically on the rectangular stage, creating a solemn atmosphere reminiscent of a religious ceremony. At Miraikan, the LCD panels were arranged in a circle to form an octahedron, and the chorus transformed and danced like organic matter in time with the music. Although the venue was standing-only with only a few reserved seats, the moment Björk appeared, exclamations of "So close!", "I can almost reach out and touch her!", and "I can see her so well!" Perhaps the greatest feature of "Biophilia Tokyo" was the intimacy of the space. Seeing Björk's trembling throat movements with the naked eye, hearing her powerful voice, restored after overcoming polyp surgery last year, and enjoying the visuals on the touchscreen that synchronized with the technologically advanced sound. The album "Biophilia" centers around "music," "nature," and "technology," and these three elements were also expressed in various performances at the live concert. For example, during the performance of "Thunderbolt," a "singing Tesla coil"—a super-high-voltage transformer—was introduced, triggering lightning with the sound of the "singing Tesla coil." The audience's excitement rose instantly as Björk and lightning combined. During "Moon," the moon's phase and shape change on the touchscreen in response to each note played by the harp.
Between songs, narration by Richard Attenborough, a film director who was Björk's childhood idol and has directed numerous BBC nature documentaries, questions the wonders of life, the Earth's evolution, and the choices humanity must make for the future.
Björk's outfit for the night evoked the double helix structure of "DNA," the song's title, and consisted of countless intertwined blue and orange cubes. Some may have been reminded of a mother carrying the eggs of countless life forms, while others may have been reminded of the beautiful chemical formulas of molecules and crystals. From "Oskasteinar," which began with an a cappella performance with the chorus, through the 16th track, "Solstice," Björk barely introduced the band members, and after each song, she spoke in cute, broken Japanese, saying "Thank you" and "Thank you, sir," but it was a delightful surprise when she increased her vocabulary during the encore. Before the third encore, "Declare Independence," she called out, "If you want to dance, don't stop!", which ignited excitement in the audience and brought the excitement to a fever pitch! On the touchscreen, a scene unfolded: fragmented continents floating above the ocean were reunited by tectonic shifts, and even magma welling up from the earth, its energy shaping a new landscape. It was about breaking down rigid common sense and conventions and linking nature and technology in a beautiful relationship. Björk entrusted this message to us, the audience, during these dreamlike hours.
In conjunction with her live tour, Björk also held a workshop for children at the Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) called "Creativity as a Learning Tool," where they could intuitively learn about music and science. Nature, technology, and music. Her questions continue.
-Setlist-
・ Oskasteinar
・ Thunderbolt
・ Moon
・ Crystalline
・ Hollow
・ Dark Matter
・ Pleasure Is All Mine
・ Mouth's Cradle
・ Virus
・ Sonnets
・ Unrealities XI
・ Where Is the Line?
・ Pagan Poetry
・ Mutual Core
・ Cosmogony
・ Solstice
-Encore-
・ One Day
・ Nattura
・ Declare Independence
