A Björk concert is more than a concert; it’s an experience. Known for her charmingly enigmatic personality and avant-garde production, the Icelandic singer is one of pop music’s most peerless and enchanting performers, a fact she continued to solidify at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Wednesday evening (January 26th).
Her elaborate two-hour show Cornucopia, which began in 2019, was molded around her 2017 record Utopia, an album overflowing with tenderness and rich woodwind instrumentation. One tour hiatus later (see: ongoing pandemic), Björk returned and offered a healthy, much-needed dose of tranquility and warmth in a time of collective frustration and fatiguing uncertainty.
The space definitely helped to set the mood and soothe some anxiety during a still-raging (though slowly declining) COVID variant surge. As masked and vaxxed guests took their seats, a digital projection of golden and red flowers streamed onto the stage’s large, thin curtains, while fluttery electronic chirps quietly filled the room.
The Shrine, a massive and gorgeous temple in Downtown LA, was a venue perfectly suited for the ornate orchestration and spiritual atmosphere of Björk’s sound. Even the dissonant hum of the crowd seemed to evoke her music’s elegant softness and vibrant harshness, with some sitting in meditative silence and others engaging in excited conversation about when the idiosyncratic artist will emerge.
