Zontal was written in 1985 when Björk and GKO formed a duo alongside K.U.K.L. The piece was performed in many concerts but Björk and GKO recorded it in a session which also included Patre, Stígðu mig and Síðasta ég. The engineer in these seesions, Mel Jefferson, thought the music sounded classical and called the duo “The Elgar Sisters”. The recordings have since come to be known as The Elgar Sessions.
Compositionally, the piece is a sort of back-to-front blues with a diabolus. The work is horizontal in two ways: The text that Björk sang and is now read by Megas is a poem by Þór Eldon called Horizontal Position and the piece is written in a “horizontal” key. To Eldon’s text are added some words from a paper by GKO on sub-nuclear structures, Platonic solids and magic numbers.
credits
from Dense Time,
track released March 6, 2006
Academy of Industry and Arts
With features that include Nels Cline and The Residents, this album from polyhedren is a cinematic trip through global music. Bandcamp New & Notable May 1, 2022
The Kinshasa collective's latest centers around the very idea that was the basis of their success 15 years ago: that unity is strength. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 13, 2021
Recorded in his native Lebanon, Bachar Mar-Khalifé's latest is a moving collection of ambient soundscapes both classical and avant-garde. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 29, 2020