On the occasion of Biophilia, her new album and multimedia performance project, Björk has commissioned several new instruments, including one known as the gameleste. Incorporating gamelan-like bronze bars in a celeste housing, the gameleste is the work of the British percussionist Matt Nolan and the Icelandic organ craftsman Björgvin Tómasson. Nolan has a video about the making of the instrument; "Crystalline," one of two gameleste songs on the album, can be heard here, in a video by Michel Gondry. I've only just begun to explore the complex universe of Biophilia, which Björk first described to me a couple of years ago, at a Shun Lee dinner before Des Canyons aux étoiles at Alice Tully Hall. The concept is all but impossible to sum up briefly: it embraces not only live shows and an album (due from Nonesuch on Oct. 11) but also a documentary, iPad apps, instrument construction, and educational workshops, all exploring "relationships between musical structures and natural phenomena." Björk discusses the project in a long interview with Brandon Stosuy for Stereogum. The music I've heard so far is mesmerizing, and the ageless melody of "Virus" strikes me as one of the most gorgeous inventions of Björk's career.
