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"Hollow" is a song by Björk from her eighth studio album, Biophilia.
Background[]
Working titles for this song were "Double Helix" and "DNA."
Björk wrote this song after taking part in a DNA survey on National Geographic.
"National Geographic offered to take a DNA swab and they sent me the results and I got really excited. I found out they my mother’s side is Phoenician, and ancient civilization from present day Syria that actually became celtic and went to Ireland. Icelanders still today tell stories about when the vikings picked up Irish women on the way to Iceland… And then on my father’s side I’m from a really big-time common oceanic Western European branch which is sort of Portugal and west of France and Britain and Iceland… So I did this song after I found that about DNA. Before that I had always been kinda anti family trees because Iceland is obsessed with its ancestors —probably because we happen to have all the information on us in the sagas like 1200 years back."
In an email to NPR, Björk described her idea behind the song:[1]
"It’s just the feeling when you start thinking about your ancestors and DNA that the grounds open below you and you can feel your mother and her mother, hand her mother, and her mother, and her mother 30,000 years back. So suddenly you’re this kinda tunnel, or trunk of DNA… All these ghosts come up so it ended up begin a Halloween song and quite gothic in a way… It’s like being part of this everlasting necklace when you’re just a bead on a chain and you sort of want to belong and be a part of it and it’s just like a miracle."
The original 7-minute version of "Hollow" was released on the deluxe version of Biophilia.[2]
Music video[]
Björk collaborated with biomedical animator Drew Berry for the music video, which explores the inside of the singer's body. Berry explained:[1]
The “Hollow” music video is a powers-of-10 exploration of the microscopic and molecular landscapes inside Björk’s body. The animation was constructed from molecular models of DNA and proteins derived from various forms of scientific data such as x-ray crystallography."
Lyrics[]
Hollow |
Hollow |
Credits[]
- Music & lyrics by Björk
- Choir arrangement by Björk
- Choir transcription by Árni Heimir Ingólfsson & Matt Robertson
- Beat programming by Matthew Herbert, Björk & Damian Taylor
- Engineered by Damian Taylor & Sveinn Kjartansson
- Mixed by Damian Taylor & Björk
- Produced by Björk
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Raby, Dan (5 March 2012). "Bjork Explores The World Within For 'Hollow'"
- ↑ "Björk – Biophilia (2011, Deluxe Edition)". Discogs.