Bjork on working with David Attenborough and new climate-focused film

Bjork has recalled witnessing Sir David Attenborough’s orator “superpower” when they sat down to discuss their mutual love for music and the natural world for a documentary.

The 2013 programme, titled When Björk Met Attenborough, saw the Icelandic musician and acclaimed broadcaster and naturalist unite after admiring each other’s work for years.

Reflecting on her time with Sir David on Apple Music’s The Zane Lowe show, Bjork recalled her amazement after he produced the “most beautiful paragraph” without a script.

The singer said: “I remember we once had to film, and we were in the basement of the Natural History Museum. And something broke, some equipment, and we had to sit there for hours for it getting fixed.

“And he just sat there, and obviously double my age. And I was basically drained, and I was so exhausted, just got more and more exhausted as we had to wait.

“And just looked at him and I was like, ‘f****** hell.” Basically, I could just imagine him in Papua New Guinea (doing) the same thing, because I bet the equipment were always breaking.

“You had wait for seven hours for a Bird of Paradise or whatever. He basically just shut off, and he was closed eyes, and then it was action.

“And then he just came out with the most beautiful paragraph, fully formed sentence, no script that I’ve ever heard. I was like, ‘What the f***?’ It was just a superpower of the orator.”

The singer and composer is set to release a new concert film of her Cornucopia project, a digitally animated show with incorporated VR visuals and moving curtains.

Recorded in Lisbon, the show’s setlist was arranged to reflect on her career with songs including her early career compositions, like Isobel and Hidden Place, up to her 2017 Utopia and 2023 Fossora.

Discussing her inspiration behind the climate-focused film Cornucopia, she said it focused on how do we move forward when damage has already been done.

“It is more from that protecting biodiversity (angle), more stuff like that than maybe the Gen X-ers standing and punk-like screaming, pointing fingers at people who own factories”, she said.

“‘If I scream louder, they will stop’. That’s not going to work anymore.

“It’s more about trying to bring solutions and trying to help. Everybody wants to help. We are all guilt-ridden.

“We are all… seven billion of people paralysed with guilt of what we did to the planet. We don’t have to even discuss that one.

“So, we can’t add to that guilt factor. I think it’s more about helping to go to court, how can I click, how can I write new laws that can change the system from inside?”

Björk: The Zane Lowe Interview will air on Thursday at 6pm on Apple Music 1 and the exclusive Apple Music Live: Björk (Cornucopia) performance will debut on Saturday on Apple Music.