I See Who You Are

Nico Muhly à propos du titre I See Who You Are
The world of experimental pop is one of great freedom and celebrations of sonic juxtapositions ; if you listen to Björk’s I See Who You Are from her album Volta, you hear Min Xiao-Fen, the Chinese pipa player, unfolding long tremolo lines over a syncopated but buoyant electronic beat. Later, at a darker turn in the song ("Later this century / when you and I have become corpses"), a brass choir creeps into the background, distant and ominous. This is not, however, east-meets-west "fusion" anything, but instead, Björk’s compositional agenda at work ; the pipa was the right vessel to carry the emotional content of the song, and so it appears in that spirit. The brass choir slides in to underline the lyrics ; you see it in Mahler, you see it in Brahms, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t...

guardian.co.uk