Stonemilker VR

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Présentation

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i am proud to announce finally the release of combined digital/cd and vinyl of vulnicura . it took us a while to gather all together into point after leak but here you are : i would like to thank all my team for their insane hard work and be up for some topsy turvy improv .

i am also incredibly proud to offer a premier of stonemilker . with 360 3D sound mix for virtual reality headset.

this came about as a spontaneous fruit of mine and andrew huang´s collaboration . we had already done black lake , the "family" moving album cover and the black lake "book cover" trailer and then found us in iceland one day with nothing to do and a 360 camera lying about . we discussed its potential for intimacy and andrew then suggested we take it to the beach where the song was written . it immediately rang true for me as that location has a beautiful 360 panoramic view which matches the cyclical fugue like movement in the song . if the song has a shape it is sort of like a circle that just goes on forever .

i had recorded the strings with a clip on mike on each instrument . we have made a different mix where we have fanned this in an intimate circle around the listener .

so as you watch this in the virtual reality headset it will be as if you are on that beach and with the 30 players sitting in a circle tightly around you
in celebration of the physical release we will premier this in the rough trade record shop . ( I LOVE ROUGH TRADE saved my life so many times ) and in ps1 you will be able to go and see it for next couple of months

hope you like it

gratitude

björk

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Facebook, mars 2015

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Björk à propos du clip

"C’est très facile d’avoir de l’intimité grâce à la réalité virtuelle. C’est presque plus intime que la vraie vie. Il y a aussi cette incroyable vision panoramique que je trouve très excitante."

Fast Company, février 2015

we discussed [the 36o camera’s] potential for intimacy and andrew then suggested we take it to the beach where the song was written . it immediately rang true for me as that location has a beautiful 360 panoramic view which matches the cyclical fugue like movement in the song . if the song has a shape it is sort of like a circle that just goes on forever . i had recorded the strings with a clip on mike on each instrument . we have made a different mix where we have fanned this in an intimate circle around the listener . so as you watch this in the virtual reality headset it will be as if you are on that beach and with the 30 players sitting in a circle tightly around you

Pitchfork, mars 2015

Andrew Thomas Huang à propos du Clip

We only had time to plan the shoot the night before, and only 2 hours of filming due to the tide, and captured the performance in just a few takes. Because of the all-seeing nature of this camera, my whole crew and I ducked behind boulders, leaving Björk alone with the camera, not knowing what we would be ultimately capturing. All I remember is staring at the pearlescent purple seashells beneath my feet throughout the takes listening to her strings reverberating against the wet tidepool rocks, popping my head up occasionally to steal glances of Björk in her duet with the camera. The spontaneity of the experience contrasted the months of planning and designing "Black Lake," shot in Iceland only a few months before in August. My experience with Björk that summer involved her wearing a fitted sculptural black dress, pounding her chest in frigid temperatures, reliving her separation on camera while kneeling in a jagged ravine carved away by glaciers. The woman we found in November was much different : her home was adorned with lilac candles, the air was moist and thick with neon yellow garments hanging and the tables covered in creamy lilac latex. There was a feeling of soft, translucent skinlike textures everywhere, evoking a sense of healing, molting and nakedness. This was the new Björk we captured in "Stonemilker."

Pitchfork, mars 2015

Stonemilker was shot using a camera rig custom-built by VRSE.works and fitted with GoPro 360 cameras. The project was conceived from a desire by Huang to complete some of their early ambitions for Black Lake. "To be perfectly honest, I felt really responsible," he says. "I felt really disappointed that we couldn’t fulfil her original vision of doing something in 360."
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While they were originally planning to film the piece to accompany Lion Song, Björk didn’t think that the technology was right for that track, so it was switched the night before the shoot to Stonemilker. The location was also changed, with the film shot on the beach where Björk wrote the song.
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"It was very spontaneous," says Huang. "But I’ve found that that’s when the magic really happens with her, when you have those conversations and do a lot of improv, I think it kept it fresh and authentic. It is a naked album, it doesn’t have all the accoutrements that Biophilia had, it really is just her, with her hair down and beautiful flowing dress, just on the rocks. It almost felt more like a documentary performance act, rather than a music video that we were doing. Because of the 360 format, when you wear a good headset, you really do feel like she’s there with you. You look down and there’s her feet, and she’s looking right at you and her hands are right in front of your nose. It really is a great medium for intimacy.
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"Actually we are all in the video, we’re just hiding behind all the rocks," he says. "We all had to press go and then scuttle behind the rocks – we had no idea what we were capturing because it was just Björk and the camera, it was a very private experience for her, and she loved it."
Creative Review , avril 2015

We captured "Stonemilker" in November on the westernmost tip of Reykjavik, an island called Grótta on the Seltjarnarnes peninsula, which is the very site by the lighthouse where she wrote the song and recorded much of Vulnicura. After arriving in Iceland with a variety of camera gear and open minds, and after my in-depth conversations with Björk at her home about the circular nature of the song, we spontaneously decided to shoot a performance of "Stonemilker" on the beach where it was written, using the 360 VRSE.works camera with the intent of capturing an intimate performance for virtual reality in the Grótta was a challenging location, as our only access to the island was a rocky narrow beach frequently covered by a swift moving tide easily stranding anyone who didn’t keep watch of the clock. We only had time to plan the shoot the night before, and only 2 hours of filming due to the tide, and captured the performance in just a few takes.
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Because of the all-seeing nature of this camera, my whole crew and I ducked behind boulders, leaving Björk alone with the camera, not knowing what we would be ultimately capturing. All I remember is staring at the pearlescent purple seashells beneath my feet throughout the takes listening to her strings reverberating against the wet tidepool rocks, popping my head up occasionally to steal glances of Björk in her duet with the camera.

The spontaneity of the experience contrasted the months of planning and designing "Black Lake," shot in Iceland only a few months before in August. My experience with Björk that summer involved her wearing a fitted sculptural black dress, pounding her chest in frigid temperatures, reliving her separation on camera while kneeling in a jagged ravine carved away by glaciers.

The woman we found in November was much different : her home was adorned with lilac candles, the air was moist and thick with neon yellow garments hanging and the tables covered in creamy lilac latex. There was a feeling of soft, translucent skinlike textures everywhere, evoking a sense of healing, molting and nakedness. This was the new Björk we captured in "Stonemilker".

Dazed, mars 2015

We did [“Stonemilker”] maybe six months later, and Björk was already a different person by then. She was feeling much better. I think all the heaviness and the weightiness and the anxiety of doing the MoMA exhibition... I think we had all had it. We were all just ready to do something spontaneous and lighter. My producer had just become an executive producer at a VR company [then] called Vrse.works [now called Within]. She brought with her a VR camera that was a custom made thing with GoPro.
We decided at 10 PM on Friday night to shoot this thing at 6 AM Saturday, the next morning. We scrambled together and pulled this light crew out to this island on the westernmost tip of Reykjavík, and shot our first VR film in a really punk way. Even the dress that she’s wearing, which is a Michael van der Ham dress, the cape that she’s wearing, someone told me that we just dyed it the day before. It was just very spontaneous, and we did it.
The post-production was really involved, because there wasn’t really a workflow for that kind of VR at that time. But I was able to create a piece where, as she sings, she multiplies along with the rise and fall of the song. Even in post, there was some improvising. It was a much more spontaneous experience that I think mirrors the mood and the levity of her performance.

Red Bull Music Academy - Octobre 2016

James Merry à propos du Clip

Stonemilker was particularly fun as it was the first time we shot in 360, and we were all discovering it’s strengths and weaknesses and how exactly it worked. Everyone on set had to hide behind the big rocks on the beach while Björk was performing, as the camera is essentially pointed in every direction. It was an odd feeling at the end of a whole day shooting, we all clapped and cheered before realising that no-one else but Björk had seen a second of the performance captured.

I-D - septembre 2016

Presse

She’s a consistent early adopter of new technologies. To shoot “Stonemilker” in 3-D, 360-degree virtual reality, the director Andrew Huang was using four pairs of sports cameras on a stand, refitted with 180-degree-angle lenses and facing in four directions, with their images to be stitched together later by software. Parts of the prototype were “literally held together with Scotch tape,” Mr. Huang said.
For the video, Björk wore an asymmetrically layered neon-yellow dress and leggings — the color, she told me, of “emergency” — and white platform shoes that made it difficult to clamber over a tall rock wall onto the black stone beach where the camera was set up. There wasn’t much time ; by midafternoon, high tide would flood the only road from the lighthouse.
Since the 360-degree capture left nowhere to hide, Björk performed unseen ; the crew and observers crouched behind the wall. As she lip-synced and danced, her voice, a string orchestra and a fitful electronic beat poured out of a speaker as she sang, “We have emotional needs !”

NY Times, janvier 2015