Drawing Restraint 9

The Music from Matthew Barney’s Drawing Restraint 9 is a soundtrack created by Bjork in collaboration with her then-partner Matthew Barney for his film of the same title.

For this project Bjork travelled to Japan to study ancient Japanese music. Several tracks are made with the sound of the shō, a Japanese instrument which contains 16 various reeds; the shō performances are from Mayumi Miyata, one of the world’s greatest shō players. She also appears in the film, playing her instrument. The song Holographic Entrypoint features a Noh score and vocal performance by Shiro Nomura. Björk brought Nameless back from her 2003 tour, and, with the help of Leila Arab, looped and edited it to create the track Storm.

Will Oldham (also known as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) is featured on the first track, Gratitude, singing a letter from a Japanese fisherman to General Douglas MacArthur set to a melody by Matthew Barney. Björk’s vocals feature only on the tracks Bath, Storm, and Cetacea. Gratitude, Shimenawa and Cetacea feature harp player Zeena Parkins, who previously collaborated with Björk on her 2001 album Vespertine. Hunter Vessel was later re-used on her album Volta for the tracks Vertebræ by Vertebræ and Declare Independence.