Björk has issued an apology to all those disappointed by her withdrawing from Hungary’s Balaton Sound, Russia’s Afisha Picnic, and both editions of Spain’s Primavera festivals. The Icelandic singer, who was this week diagnosed as having an “inflamed nodule” in her throat, has been ordered by doctors to rest her voice for six weeks, thus voiding any chance she might still headline at any of the above.

Organisers of the Poland-based Heineken Open’er have said that, as far as they are aware, Björk will still appear as billed at the festival, which takes place between 4-7 Jul.

And so to the statement, which has much to teach Ms Azealia Banks in the ‘sorry I can’t play festivals A and B’ department. Writing via her Facebook page, Björk explains: “I am very sorry and embarrassed about having to cancel things and having promised things and then not being able to keep my word, truly breaks my heart. Especially to people who have already bought tickets”.

She adds: “In the meantime, I will rest and reschedule and make a promise to my chords and especially those who want to listen to them that even though my mind and my intention gets overexcited and runs ahead , I will from now on allow breaks between ‘legs’ of tours to reassemble. Because like that I can give better. Warmth, Björk”.

Björk has had to cancel some gigs after being the latest artist to be struck down with throat problems, though unlike Adele, it looks likely that the Icelandic singer won’t need surgery, just rest.

Confirming a residency at the Buenos Aires’ Centro de Exposiciones was being curtailed, Björk wrote on her Facebook: “I’m sorry to say that I have a nodule on my vocal chords and therefore cannot complete the Buenos Aires gigs. It is a shame as I really love the city and would have loved to stay longer. I hope I can go back soon”.

The singer is reportedly still hopeful she’ll be able to meet her festival commitments over the summer.

Death Grips, Hudson Mohawke, Matthew Herbert and These New Puritans are among artists who will release remixes of tracks taken from Björk’s ‘Biophilia’ album in the coming months. King Cannibal, Alva Noto, 16 Bit, El Guincho, and Current Value will also contribute to the eight part series of single, with the latter’s takes on ‘Crystalline’ and ‘Solstice’ due out as a single on 2 Apr. The others will follow every two weeks.

Meanwhile, Björk has released a new video for the original version of ‘Hollow’, of which director Drew Barry says: “The ‘Hollow’ music video is a powers-of-ten 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.

So, there you go. Have a look at Björk’s insides here:

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke look back at a year of digital music innovations and developments, and at the big stories and trends in the media industry.

01 HACK-GATE
2011 was not a good year for British newspapers, even though, via their websites, most are now talking to bigger audiences than ever before. But print readerships and ad revenues continued to slump, while internet ad sales failed to grow sufficiently, mainly because of stiff competition from Google and Facebook for the ad man’s pound. With subscription websites not really working, most publishers now hope some kind of subscription-based app might be a solution, and some dabbled in that area this year.

But bigger than all of that was Hack-gate, a scandal that had been brewing for years, but which exploded when it was revealed in July that, as well as hacking the voicemails of celebrities and politicians, News Of The World journalists had accessed the answer phones of victims of crime too, most notably murdered teenager Milly Dowler. Worse still, a number of NOTW hacks were clearly involved, when the paper’s publisher, Rupert Murdoch’s News International, had always claimed there was just one.

Facing global outrage, NI took the radical step of shutting the NOTW down, but still public anger rumbled on. Former NOTW editor and then NI CEO Rebekah Wade resigned (eventually), Murdochs Rupert and James faced embarrassing questions in parliament, and it all ended up with a big government-instigated inquiry, with the crimes and lies of NI, the tactics of all journalists, and the tricky issue of privacy rights all combined into one big muddle. A major media story, if not hugely music related. Though George Michael got the boot in, and Charlotte Church appeared at the inquiry.

02 HACK ATTACKS
Hacking of another kind also cropped up in the headlines of 2011, as small groups of angry geeks around the world – many affiliated to the likes of Anonymous or LulzSec – targeted the servers of organisations, and sometimes individuals, who represented big copyright owners, or who it was felt were in some way censoring the internet.

Such attacks weren’t new, and had been prevalent in 2010, though an attack on Sony Corp’s servers, which enabled hackers to run off with the personal details of customers of both its PlayStation Network and streaming content platform (then still called Qriocity), was possibly the highest profile attack. And very embarrassing for an already struggling Sony company, whose handling of the crisis was widely criticised.

Though the authorities did start to fight back, with various hackers around the world accused of involvement in such attacks arrested, including some linked to the Sony attack, and more recently one accused of taking the website of Kiss man Gene Simmons offline in late 2010, after he said record labels should have sued all file-sharers.

03 NME V MORRISSEY
Back in 2007, Morrissey gave an interview to the NME in which he appeared to say that an “immigration explosion” had damaged Britain’s identity. Which a lot of people pointed out came across a bit racist. Morrissey, however, claimed that the interview had been reworked to make him sound racist by then editor Conor McNicholas and vowed to sue.

No legal action was forthcoming though, until this year, when the former Smiths frontman finally sued for defamation. In October a judge ruled that the case could go ahead, despite NME publisher IPC Media’s protestation that as Morrissey has released albums and toured successfully in subsequent years, his reputation clearly hadn’t been damaged by the interview, something that is required for a defamation case to succeed.

The case is now pending a court date next year, and though this type of dispute is often ultimately settled out of court, both sides seem so determined to prove their innocence that it looks likely it will actually reach trial. A statement apparently written by Morrissey and published in November made his anger abundantly clear.

04 THE RHYTHMIX DEBACLE
Little Mix recently won this year’s UK ‘X-Factor’, but they didn’t always go by that name. After being created on the show from solo entrants who weren’t deemed good enough to make it through to the final twelve on their own, the original name the girl group chose (or possibly had chosen for them) was Rhythmix, which has a nicer ring to it. Unfortunately, it was also the name used by a charity which works with children who have been bereaved, who are disabled, or who have been sent to youth detention centres, using music as a method to aid personal and communicative development.

The charity owns a trademark in the name for educational activities, but not for music, the space in which ‘X-Factor’ then applied for a registered mark. But the charity’s bosses, fearing Team X’s trademark would hinder their fundraising efforts, hoped that, once made aware of the clash, the show’s producers would change the girl group’s name.

But no, they told the charity that if they wanted to block the group’s use of the name they’d have to go to court. A very expensive pursuit. An online campaign in support of the charity began, though it was an open letter from the organisation’s CEO to Simon Cowell that finally brought ‘X-Factor’ in line, and Rhythmix became Little Mix. Though it took another open letter to actually get TV bosses to withdraw their trademark application, and a social media push to persuade Cowell and co to pay the charity’s legal costs.

05 A NEW BOSS AT RADIO 1
Former commercial radio chief John Myers undertook a review of the BBC’s national music radio stations this year, concluding that the likes of Radios 1 and 2 are vastly over staffed, and proposing a raft of changes, most of which would help the Beeb in it’s mission to radically cut its costs. Predictably, BBC Radio boss Tim Davie congratulated himself on commissioning the report and ignored most of its recommendations.

But there was a little change at Radio 1 as Andy Parfitt, boss there for thirteen years, finally left the BBC after three decades with the Corporation. His former number two, Ben Cooper, took over, so radical changes seem unlikely, although he has already reshuffled the station’s specialists show DJs and pledged to work with more indie producers on programmes.

While we’re talking about Radio 1, we probably ought to remember that one of the station’s most iconic presenters of old, the one time face of ‘Top Of The Pop’s, and, some would argue, the first ever DJ – Mr Jimmy Saville – died in October.

06 STREAMING GETS BIGGER
This seemed to be the year that streaming music services really started to take off, not that any made any money, and several revamped their offers to cut back on the costly-to-run freemium on-demand options, Spotify in April and We7 in September. Nevertheless, most streaming platforms saw their user numbers grow, and there seemed to be big announcements from the sector every week, whether it was Pandora’s flotation, Spotify’s final long-time-coming launch in the US, or Deezer’s arrival in the UK and planned expansion to more countries than exist.

Success brings backlash of course, and both artists and smaller labels started to hit out at the royalties these services pay out. Whether that matters really depends on whether you think being on Spotify et al has a negative impact on iTunes sales. In the US Century Media, and in Britain STHoldings, both reckoned it did. The big record companies, though, were generally supportive of the streaming services, though they are possibly getting much better royalties. And nevertheless, some big artists, Coldplay among them, did keep their new albums off the streaming platforms. This debate will rumble on in 2012.

07 FACEBOOK PARTNERSHIPS
In September Facebook had a big party to make a big announcement. Everyone there seemed very excited. Alas, the technology changes happening in the background, which were possibly significant, were far too complicated to understand, so everyone focused on the content partnerships also revealed.

Said content partners could now make available widgets that would publish every song a user ever listened to, or every article they ever read. Quite why anyone would want that still isn’t clear, though lots of content partners have made such apps available, and apparently lots of people are signing up to their services as a result.

Possibly the most high profile partner was Spotify, who were brought on stage at the party to demo their app. The Spotify/Facebook love affair meant existing Spotify accounts synced to Facebook would automatically share data, and new Spotify users would have to sign up via their Facebook accounts. Some existing subscribers responded badly to this news, forcing Spotify to make it easier for said users to opt out of the Facebook love-in.

08 APPS
Talking of the app word, as the use of smartphones and tablets continued to grow this year, so too did the use of music apps. Most streaming services now have a premium subscription allowing users to access music via mobile devices using an app, this being seen as key to converting free users to paying subscribers.

Apps also became a routine addition to many artists’ promotional campaigns. Though while many (though not all) artist apps simply collate music, videos and text that already exists online, the bar was pushed high by Björk, who had special apps built for each of the songs on her ‘Biophilia’ album. The apps allowed users to manipulate the songs through various games and activities, as well as providing visual scores of the recorded versions and more.

Whether the app should be seen as a new type of album, a slick promotional tool, or a waste of time, is still being debated, but the trend for artists being creative with their apps will continue.

09 DIGITAL LOCKERS
Digital locker services for music have been around for several years now, the most high profile until this year being MP3.com founder Michael Robertson’s MP3tunes – a service that is locked in a legal battle with EMI which rumbles on despite a judgement in August.

But in March, Amazon decided to launch one too, making music-based lockers suddenly big news. Did the company get licences from the record labels and publishers to make this happen? No. As far as Amazon was concerned, no licence was required to simply store your music somewhere. Those pesky rightsholders, however, argue that there is if you want to then stream tracks back through a player attached to that storage.

At the same time Google was also preparing to launch a digital locker service, and it did get in touch with rightsholders first. However, when Google became frustrated with the slow progress of negotiations, it launched unlicensed too. Only Apple, which arguably has the most compelling offer of the three with its iCloud service, actually gained licences, and as a result is the first of the big players to launch a locker in the UK.

10 STEVE JOBS
Talking of Apple, the IT giant’s co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs died in October this year, having been suffering from pancreatic cancer for some time.

His health problems had been high profile in recent years, of course, and were enough to cause Apple’s share price to dip at one time. But he had always returned to work after his various leaves of absence, so when he finally announced in August that he was unable to continue leading the company and stepped down, many feared the worst.

Jobs, of course, was not a music industry person, but such was his and Apple’s effect on the music world with the iPod, iTunes and more that it would seem strange not to mark his passing in our review of the year. His is a legacy that will live on for many years to come, in music and many other fields.

Each December we select our ten favourite artists of that year, acts we think have made an indelible mark on the last twelve months and offered that little bit more than their contemporaries. The votes are in, the squabbling has been done, and so here are our ten Artists Of The Year for 2011 – click the images to read the full articles. And click here to listen to a CMU playlist featuring tracks from each of our artists of the year.

Björk
In nearly 35 years as a performer, Björk has never been conventional and has done much to push the boundaries of music in her time. But for her latest album, ‘Biophilia’, she experimented not only musically but also with how the music itself was released. ‘Biophilia’ is an ambitious project that will act as a marker music.

Amon Tobin
Traditionally the whole of an artist’s activity is a sum of various parts. You write an album, you record an album, you get on the road and tour to promote that album. And while I’m sure that in part the same is true for Amon Tobin, it at least appeared that in 2011 he was working on one complete project, a feat of joined up thinking where each piece was as important as the others.

PJ Harvey
It was apparent from the first listen of PJ Harvey’s eighth album, ‘Let England Shake’, that it was going to be one of the year’s best, and one that would dominate end of year lists. Released in February, it has since swept up numerous accolades, including Harvey’s second Mercury Prize win, recognised for its brilliant songwriting and the sheer work that went into making it.

Beyonce
Beyonce’s ‘Run The World (Girls)’ launched her fourth studio album, ’4′. Although not as successful as hoped, the ’4′ crusade strutted on, with second single ‘Best Thing I Never Had’ coinciding with a headline set at Glastonbury, a marathon demonstration of her supreme stagecraft, and one of the more glamorous showbiz spectacles yet to flood the Pyramid Stage’s iconic outline.

Wiley
2010 was a bit of a strange year for Wiley, a mixture of chart success and label disputes. Somewhere along the way, he cracked. He announced via Twitter that he had sacked his manager, before uploading a series of zip files containing over 200 previously unreleased tracks. But since wiping the slate clean and signing a new deal, he returned this year triumphant.

Emika
Pulling on all sorts of permutations of UK bass music and Berlin techno, plus a dose of 90s R&B, ‘Emika’ is an album that has its own sound, with no artists clearly definable as influences. It’s dark and edgy but also filled with hooks, and somehow both loud and quiet. Very few artists manage to create such a distinct world in which to place their songs.

Odd Future
Odd Future had their unofficial coming out party at this year’s SxSW; toasted as a hip hop revelation and the true torchbearers of the underground flame. Ever since the LA collective’s many factions have prolificly released singles, albums and mixtapes, harnessing the social potency of Tumblr and Twitter on a scale bordering on revolutionary.

EMA
EMA made the move from South Dakota to LA aged eighteen, taking her first footsteps into the music world with alt-rockers Amps For Christ and releasing a 2007 album with drone-folk pairing Gowns before electing to strike out on her own. Her debut album, ‘Past Life Martyred Saints’, has a broad but clearly defined sonic palette, which allows for diverse variety of styles.

The Weeknd
A dark, downbeat confection of songcraft and samples, swirled through with a lush falsetto, and made shadowy flesh by Canadian producer-singer-songwriter Abel Tesfaye. I’m talking, of course, about The Weeknd, who this year confounded critics with his ‘House Of Balloons’ and ‘Thursday’ mixtapes, each of which conjured a fireball of fuss.

Three Trapped Tigers
Three Trapped Tigers’ sound is complex, and can be difficult to explain succinctly. Rogerson described it to us with a riddle, saying: “How do you play Aphex Twin live? Answer: make it sound a bit like Lightning Bolt”. But that description doesn’t get over how much they’ve created their own universe of music with their own instantly recognisable sound, unlike any other band.

In nearly 35 years as a performer, Björk has never been conventional and has done much to push the boundaries of music in her time. But for her latest album, ‘Biophilia’, she experimented not only musically but also with how the music itself was released.

Having released the theme tune for a Moomins film and soundtracked fashion photographer Nick Knight’s short film dedicated to mutual friend Alexander McQueen in 2010, Björk revealed in January this year that she was in the process of recording her eighth solo album, but refused to elaborate further. Then two months later she announced a three week residency at the Manchester International Festival in June and July, with a blurb that posed the question: “Where do music, nature and technology meet?”

The answer was apparently ‘Biophilia’ “a multi-media project encompassing music, apps, internet, installations and live shows” designed to celebrate “how sound works in nature, exploring the infinite expanse of the universe, from planetary systems to atomic structure”.

It was evidently an ambitious project, even if it wasn’t entirely clear what Björk had planned. Then in June, it was announced that each track on the ‘Biophilia’ album would come with a separate app allowing fans to “interact with the song as well as associated visuals”, released one by one but all housed in a “mother-app”.

Although this idea has been written off by some as little more than a marketing tool, the idea had its origins in 2009 when Björk was trying to think of something that would turn her recorded music into an experience, rather than a collection of tracks that could simply be half-heartedly pirated online. She explained to Wired earlier this year that her original plan was to have different songs playing in different rooms of a house “like a museum” and a 3D film directed by Michel Gondry. The film was scuppered when Gondry became unavailable, but the music house idea grew and changed with the launch of the iPad.

Björk used Apple’s tablet computer in both the writing and recording of ‘Biophilia’, but all the time work was also going on to develop the apps through which the music would be released. And it’s clear that the final result is anything but a quickly thrown together marketing endeavour. With an introduction by David Attenborough, the apps do provide a different way to experience the album. True, I have probably listened to the record far more via more traditional means, but the various software experiences do give you a different relationship with the music, particularly those which allow the user to manipulate the music itself.

Add to that the score and lyric visualisations that come as extras and you’ve got the thing that anyone who’s ever complained that no one sits down and looks at album artwork in the digital age should be crying out for.

In the accompanying live show, Björk unveiled some of the custom instruments she had built for the recording of the album, including one constructed from a Tesla coil for the song ‘Thunderbolt’, which had the added bonus of being visually impressive. With it giving off (albeit artificial) lightning, it was one of the ways the themes of nature that run through the album were represented. With a stage set that designed to look like a Victorian hall, and a combination of video footage, narration by David Attenborough and a 25-piece Icelandic choir thrown into the mix, it was certainly a spectacle.

‘Biophilia’ as a whole is a hugely ambitious project, and one that perhaps overstretches itself at times. The music at its centre is not perfect, with ever shifting odd time signatures ensuring it’s not an easy listen. But there are plenty of successes within it, and plenty to keep drawing you back in. Songs like ‘Crystalline’ and ‘Mutual Core’ find the album at its most accessible, while opener ‘Moon’ is one I think I would enjoy less had I not spent time playing with its app.

And I don’t see that fact that Björk sometimes overstretches herself as a bad thing, per se. She clearly attempted to push herself, her music, and technology as far as she could with ‘Biophilia’, and if that means occasionally slipping over the edge then so be it. She still succeeded in her aim, and created something (or indeed some things) that will act as a marker in music, and the music and technology industries. We need more people like Björk.

Below is a video of Björk performing ‘Thunderbolt’ live at the Manchester International Festival earlier this year:

Find more of CMU’s ten Artists Of The Year here.

Björk has released a standalone version of the app for her track ‘Solstice’, which is also available within her larger ‘Biophilia’ app, released alongside the album of the same name and available for Apple devices.

‘Solstice’ was inspired by a Christmas poem by Icelandic author Sjón, which was written as a celebration of light and seasons, and compares the solar system to a Christmas tree. Like you do. The app takes this as its inspiration too, with a sun at its centre and rays of light manipulated by the user acting as harp strings plucked by circling planets. Which all sounds very nice, though the noise I just made with it wasn’t so much.

Presuming you make a sound that’s a bit nicer with the app, and then want to share it with people, music created in the standalone version of the app can be sent as a Christmas e-card. Download it here.

Björk has called upon fans to compose a new verse for ‘Cosmogony’, the celestial centrepiece of her current album, ‘Biophilia’.

Entrants are encouraged to use this existing verse as a template: “And they say: back then our universe/ Was an empty sea – until a silver fox/ And her cunning mate began to sing/ a song that became the world we know”.

The rules are that fans must use their new verse to describe another “creation myth”, beginning with the line “and they say”, and ending with “became the world we know”. Simple. The writer of the winning idea will have their ‘Cosmogony’ verse performed live by Björk at one of her forthcoming tour dates, which is quite an ace prospect. Interested parties have until 7 Nov to submit their entries.

More information here.

Hey, this could almost be the rebirth of our ‘Ringo Says Fuck Off’ column. Remember that? Ah, happy days. Or not for Labrinth, as he’s revealed that when he approached Björk to work on a track for her ‘Biophilia’ album, she rejected him in no uncertain terms. It is possible he’s paraphrasing a little though.

Anyway, he told the NME: “I approached Björk to be on the album. She was like, ‘Fuck off man’, but that’s how it goes. I’m sure if I was very, very famous she would consider it. It would have been nice, but I think she has a lot of things to do”.

Björk has taken to Facebook to justify setting back the release of her app-driven new album, ‘Biophilia’, by two weeks. Originally due out via One Little Indian on 26 Sep, the revised release will now take place on 10 Oct.

Says Björk of ‘Biophilia’ in its initial form: “I felt sonically it fitted that underworld of apps and virtual reality like a glove, kinda acoustic and clean with a slick dark sub, but somehow the CD needed more blood and muscles, oxygen and stuff”.

She goes on: “I felt the album had different kinda growth potential than the app box and it is important to follow those hunches even though they are slippery and you don’t know sometimes where they are taking you”. Indeed, it’s often wise to pursue a slippery hunch.

She adds that the experience of playing a residency at this year’s Manchester International Festival sparked further evolution in the music. “I ended up even using a live recording of one of the songs on the album, taking my hunch the whole distance, but in order to do that I had to put the album back a bit. I am really happy I did this, [because it] seems like ‘Biophilia’ the album [now] has a body”.

Hurrah! Better a belated album than a disembodied one. Read Björk’s full post here.

AIM has announced two winners for the inaugural Independent Music Awards, which are due to take place later this year. Björk will take home the Outstanding Contribution trophy, while Domino Records founder Laurence Bell will receive the Pioneer Award.

Björk has, of course, built up a hugely successful career, and has remained signed to independent label One Little Indian throughout. She joined the company as a member of The Sugarcubes in 1987. Meanwhile, Bell launched the Domino label by taking advantage of a £40 a week enterprise allowance scheme in 1993, and has gone on to launch the careers of bands such as Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys.

They will collect their awards at a ceremony hosted by Steve Lamacq and Huw Stephens at Floridita in Soho on 10 Nov. As well as that, several independent artists will perform live, and another twelve awards will be handed out to independent musicians, labels, entrepreneurs, and festivals.

More information here.

Björk’s recently released ‘Biophilia’ app has impressed many, but it has also brought her some criticism, as the software is only available for Apple iOS-powered devices. But she has now said that she expects it to become available on other systems eventually, if not entirely legally.

Speaking to Drowned In Sound, the singer said: “I’m not supposed to say this, probably. But I’m trusting that the pirates out there won’t tie their hands behind their back. That’s why we really made sure when we wrote all the programs that they will transfer to other systems. I mean, I don’t totally understand technologically or what it is that makes that possible”.

The ‘Biophilia’ app is available from Apple’s App Store. The ‘Biophila’ album will be released through One Little Indian on 26 Sep.

Björk has made the previously reported iOS app for her new album, ‘Biophilia’, available via the Apple app store. The free app features an introduction from David Attenborough, and the track ‘Cosmogony’, plus makes another track, ‘Crystalline’, available for in-app purchase.

All ten tracks from the album will eventually be made available through the app, and each comes with its own accompanying interactive elements, including a game, musical animation of the song, an animated score, lyrics, and an academic essay. ‘Cosmogony’ itself is hidden in the galaxy that makes up the app’s main screen, allowing the user to move through the sound in the three dimensional kind of way. Trust me, it’s all very clever.

‘Cosmogony’ and ‘Crystalline’ are also both available as standard downloads from iTunes. The album will be released by One Little Indian on 27 Sep.

‘Crystalline’, the first track from Björk’s new multi-arts venture and LP ‘Biophilia’, has emerged in full online following a teaser clip that surfaced earlier this month.

Offering a suitably strange initial glimpse into what Björk has termed her “multimedia project encompassing music, apps, internet, installations and live shows”, ‘Crystalline’ sees Björk offset her offbeat pop sensibility with a warm, winsome vocal hum as she sings about crystal formation over a trickle of triangle chimes, working in a jarring drum n bass melee for the track’s closing section.

You can stream the song below prior to its official release, along with a specialised accompanying iPad app, on 30 Jun.

Safari or Chrome users can also browse the various digital wonders housed on Björk’s ‘Biophilia’ flagship site here.

The forthcoming new Bjork album ‘Biophilia’ will have an app-party edition which will come with a separate app for each of the songs on the album, all held together by a ‘mother app’. App-tastic, hey?

The apps will let fans “interact with the song as well as associated visuals”, and the man charged with the task of making them, Scott Snibbe, told The Guardian: “Bjork’s put herself way at the forefront here by saying: ‘We’ll release this album and these apps at the same time and they’re all part of the same story’. The app is an expression of the music, the story and the idea”.

As previously reported, Bjork will present a theatrical multi-media performance of her new songs at the Manchester International Festival next month.

Björk has unveiled a new website as part of her previously reported ‘Biophilia’ project, which will see her take up residency at the Campfield Market Hall in Manchester for three weeks in June and July to premiere a new show as part of this year’s Manchester International Festival.

A statement explaining the project reads: “Björk introduces ‘Biophilia’, her most ambitious and exciting work to date. A multi-media project encompassing music, apps, internet, installations and live shows, Biophilia celebrates how sound works in nature, exploring the infinite expanse of the universe, from planetary systems to atomic structure. Release dates and further answers will be confirmed shortly”.

The website is online now at www.bjork.com, while an iPhone app will also be released in the near future.

Björk will take up residency at the Campfield Market Hall in Manchester for three weeks in June and July to premiere a new show as part of this year’s Manchester International Festival, it has been announced. Entitled ‘Biophilia’, the show will play six times in the 1800 capacity venue.

What form the show will take is not exactly clear, though the MIF website says: “Where do music, nature and technology meet? Björk introduces ‘Biophilia’, her most ambitious and exciting work to date. A multimedia project encompassing music, apps, internet, installations and live shows, ‘Biophilia’ celebrates how sound works in nature, exploring the infinite expanse of the universe, from planetary systems to atomic structure”.

But don’t worry, if that all turns out to be a bit bum, she’ll also be playing some of her hits. More information here.

Björk has announced that she is halfway through recording her new album, the follow-up to 2007′s ‘Volta’.

The singer made the announcement to Icelandic newspaper, Fréttablaðið, though refused to speak about the record in any more detail than that because she is “very superstitious”. She said: “I have had some bad experiences with a number of things before. I’m very superstitious. I go into the studio with a plan to go do what I have in mind, and then the idea is half dead”.

She also said that she is aiming to tour in autumn this year.

Björk has written a new song for fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who committed suicide earlier this year. The song soundtracks a short film made by photographer Nick Knight, entitled ‘To Lee, With Love, Nick’.

The film opened the British Fashion Council Awards in London last night, where McQueen was also given a posthumous Outstanding Contribution award, and can also be viewed online here.

Björk will release a single, ‘The Comet Song’, the theme tune to the upcoming movie ‘Moomins And The Comet Chase’, on 6 Sep. All proceeds from the single will be donated to UNICEF to support flood relief work in Pakistan.

The video for the song can be viewed at www.bjork.com/bjork_moomins.html