When Björk Met Attenborough : The Nature of Music

Première diffusion : 27 Juillet 2013 (Channel 4)
Sortie DVD/Blu-ray : 5 Mai 2014
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Réalisation : Louise Hooper
Production : Pulse Films

Dans ce documentaire, Björk et le fameux rédacteur scientifique et chercheur naturaliste britannique Sir David Attenborough échangent sur leur amour mutuel de la musique et du monde naturel.

Le reportage explore ainsi la relation unique du genre humain avec la musique et comment la technologie pourrait transformer notre façon d’appréhender l’avenir.

Au cœur du documentaire, le projet Biophilia créé par Björk, où la rencontre de la nature, la musique et la technologie.

David Attenborough nous fait découvrir la présence de la musique dans le milieu naturel et évoque également de sa propre passion pour la musique.

Oliver Sacks, professeur de neurologie et de psychiatrie, explique quand à lui les effets extraordinaires et bénéfiques de la musique sur notre cerveau.

Tilda Swinton est la narratrice de ce documentaire.

Deux versions étaient prévues : une version courte de 60 minutes pour la télévision et une version plus longue pour le cinéma.

Captures du documentaire

Bandes annonces

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Presse

"Born from Bjork’s revolutionary music project we are thrilled to be able to document this incredible journey with her ; she is undeniably one of the most iconic figures in popular culture and truly pushes boundaries like no other artist does,"
The Hollywood Reporter - Août 2012

The film is titled Attenborough and Björk : The Nature of Music and follows Attenborough as he explores various animals— birds and whales— and Björk as she shows off various instruments she’s used in her recent live shows— pendulum harp, sharpsichord, gameleste, and more. Doctor/author Oliver Sacks will also appear.

According to a Björk representative, the documentary is in its final editing stages. It’s scheduled for worldwide television broadcast in November, and a longer cut will see limited cinema release at some point.
Pitchfork - Août 2012

First, though, the highly anticipated documentary about the evolution of music she made with David Attenborough will hit TV screens soon. She recalls a day of filming the pair did at the Natural History Museum in London, when they worked a long day without any food or drinks. Björk’s blood-sugar levels dropped, and she was suffering from the lack of coffee. "He’s not a spring chicken, but you can imagine all these years where he was just filming in New Guinea and waiting for a rare bird," she smiles. "He just closes up and sits there, reserves his energy and then they say ’Action !’ and he suddenly comes out with a fully formed sentence."
NME - Novembre 2012

Attenborough and Bjork : The Nature of Music (w/t) follows Sir David Attenborough and Bjork as they tell the remarkable story of how and why music has evolved, our unique relationship with it, and how technology might transform the way we engage with it in the future.

Bjork and Sir David Attenborough have admired each other’s work for years but this is the first time they will have collaborated on screen. At the heart of this film is Biophilia - Bjork’s cutting edge music project and accompanying interactive musical experience - exploring where nature, music and technology meet.

Illustrating how music exists in the natural world, Sir David takes viewers through filming of the Lyre Bird, Reed Warbler and Blue Whales, and also speaks about his own life-long passion for music.

Bjork sees cutting edge technology as crucial in keeping our relationship with music intuitive and accessible to all. This documentary also showcases the amazing range of bespoke instruments Bjork has commissioned to help her perform her ground-breaking new music : a ’pendulum harp’, ’sharpsichord’ and ’gameleste’.
Channel 4 - Mars 2013

Louise Hooper, director of The Nature Of Music and whose father John also directed Sir David, observes that it is charming to watch the two interacting.
"There is an unexpected chemistry and fun between these two unique characters.
They are both icons of their own separate worlds of music and nature, and both excited and curious to explore how these two worlds come together. Seeing Bjork and Sir David laughing and engaging with each other on screen is simply magical," she says.
"It was fascinating to have the chance to bring Sir David and Bjork together for the first time on television. They were both great fun to work with ; Bjork fizzing with ideas for the film and Sir David bringing his passion and knowledge.
Express - Juillet 2013

★★★★☆
Björk’s music has often been described in terms of nature : volcanic, stormy, oceanic. So she and David Attenborough feel like a natural fit – they both seem likely to take genuine delight in the vision of the other. The front for this meeting of minds is the conception and performance of Björk’s 2011 ‘Biophilia’ album, an attempt to explore the relationship between music and nature and plug listeners into the most elemental emotions.

The album is, of course, Björk’s baby, with Attenborough very much an accompaniment ; in this film he has to jostle for space with Oliver Sacks, the Tesla coil and a man who has made a ‘Sharpsichord’, a bizarre and beautiful instrument on which a minute of music takes a day to programme. But Björk is a wonderfully passionate guide – as enthusiastic about touchscreens as she is about tectonic plates – and together, the pair make a seductive case for the centrality of music to the better, more constructive aspects of humanity. Stirring stuff.
Time Out - Juillet 2013