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}} "Hunter" is a song by Icelandic musician Björk from her fourth studio album, ''Homogenic'' (1997). The lyrics of "Hunter" explore the pressure Björk felt to write music after realising the workforce that depended on her, following the success she found as a solo artist with her previous studio albums. The first time the song saw the light of day was at the 1997 Tibetan Freedom Concert and later with the online promotional release of ''Homogenic''; the track was subsequently released as the third single for the album as three different CD releases in October 1998. A collaborative effort between Björk and Mark Bell, "Hunter" features a dark combination of strings and layered synths, a militaristic electronic beat, and enigmatic lyrics about the heading towards a mission. Most commentators were enticed by "Hunter", which they declared one of the highlights of the ''Homogenic'' album. The single performed poorly at the music charts, it peaked at number forty-four on the UK Singles Chart and number fifty-five on the French Singles Chart. The song was included in the compilation album ''Greatest Hits'' (2002), whose tracks were selected by fans through a survey. The accompanying music video of "Hunter" was directed by longtime collaborator Paul White of Me Company and consists of a close-up of a bald Björk as she transforms into an "techno-bear" while singing. Seeking to convey the music's fusion of organic and technological, the polar bear was animated in a non-naturalistic fashion; the bear also embodies the ferocious hunter the lyrics represent. The song's video garnered acclaim from critics. Björk has performed "Hunter" on '' Later... with Jools Holland'' and in five of her tours, the most recent being the Vulnicura Tour. ==Background and composition== The opening track of ''Homogenic'', "Hunter" showcases the hybrid elements of strings and electronic backing beats through the album. It blends the live sound of the Icelandic String Octet —orchestrated by Eumir Deodato—, Yasuhiro Kobayashi's accordion and "stuttering computer beats and beeps" programmed by Mark Bell.〔 Music journalist Evelyn McDonnell wrote "the production showed Björk's steeping in the cutting edge of electronic dance-music culture, her embrace of techno futurism, her time spent pulling all-nighters in London clubs. But the emotion was ancient, deeply human."〔 The song has been described as "dark", "uncompromising " and "icy". According to Ray Gun, "Hunter" evokes an eerie terrain with rolling techno beats and strings penetrating the air like a toxic fog.〔 Also available at (bjork.fr )〕 Björk's vocals have been much celebrated in the track. They have been described as what "() the whole shebang together together (): full of reverberating menace and trepidation on the verses, then bursting into full-throated confession, layers of her voice pitching next to each other then cascading together."〔 ''The Wire'' wrote Björk's voice "oscillates between steely-edged determination and uncontained freedom.〔 It has been noted that in "Hunter", Björk incorporates Iceland into the track with techniques that derive from Icelandic folk music and traditional stories. She uses the interval of a fifth continuously throughout the song, like the cellos during the first 30 seconds of the track; fifths were common in Icelandic folk songs, their use being particularly relevant to performance. Björk has also said: "'Hunter' is based on what my grandma told me at Christmas; about two different types of birds. One bird always had the same nest and partner all their lives. The other was always travelling and taking on different partners. At some point there was a conscious decision made to remain a hunter."〔 Elements of Maurice Ravel's ''Boléro'' were also noted. René T. A. Lysloff and Leslie C. Gay, Jr. wrote: "one of the three main sections of the whole song is the Bolero ostinato (0:00-1:36). The sounds Björk uses to cover the rhythmic patterns from ''Bolero'' are tightly interwoven."〔 Mark Bell's programming gave the song its "militaristic mode", which further conveys the sense of mission expressed in the lyrics.〔 Björk had recorded the vocals, bass line and chord structure of "Hunter" before Bell met her in Spain; he recorded the beats in one take after she had explained to him how she wanted them to sound like.〔 Also available at (bjork.fr )〕 In an interview with ''Sweater'', Björk said: "It amazes me that people still can't grasp that live element of it."〔 Regarding the beat of the song, engineer Markus Dravs stated it "is very much a Mark Bell beat interpretation of her. The idea of it being a Boleric beat () was hers, but we tried different versions and I think it was Mark in the end who came up with the idea of just doing it on a 909. Then we all had a go on the filtering and played around with the decay of each individual drum."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hunter (Björk song)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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