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Björk to release strings-only version of Vulnicura

Barely a year old, Björk’s universally acclaimed album Vulnicura is getting an acoustic, all-strings makeover. The album will be released on November 6, including a vinyl release featuring a hidden track, released a month later with the title Vulnicura Strings (Vulnicura: The Acoustic Version). 

The original album was not exactly shy on strings. The emotional record tugged at the heartstrings through diverse and dense electronic and string arrangements, and the Icelandic artist has previously stated that the orchestration helped her deal with the end of a long-term relationship with Matthew Barney (and for anyone who has listened to it, Vulnicura is basically the ultimate break-up album of 2015.)

While the former featured strings with electronic layers stacked atop, the new version will throw out any and all electronic influences, and will even embrace the one-of-a-kind Viola Organista, which was designed by Leonardo De Vinci (though he never saw it made in his lifetime.) There is just one in existence, and it combines an organ with a violin, in that a friction belt vibrates certain strings akin to a violin, while the keys are selected with a keyboard, similar to an organ. Wonderfully weird, wonderfully Björk.

Björk said in a statement:

“While I was working on Vulnicura, it became one of the most magical things both musically and spiritually to unite the electronics and the acoustic instruments in an almost romantic way – to prove they can coexist! … I felt somehow for the first time this was an album that could take another version: a reveal, to simply have the acoustics stand on their own for the folks who wanna indulge even further into the wooden timeless side of this music. With no techno.”

Björk has already revealed a taster, with a transformation of Lionsong ready to devour below: