Looking at the acts for this year and talking to many of the attendees, it seemed clear that for people who were concerned about the big names to see at Fuji Rock this year that Bjork was the artist most people were looking to see. It is difficult to deny that Bjork has a unique voice and a way of projecting it and manipulating like no other singer out there and she was out to show that to her fans tonight. Knowing how Bjork is an artist in every sense of the word, I was really looking forward to seeing what kind of visual treats she had in store for us to go along with her music. When there were images projected on to the 5 massive screens that were above and around the stage they were impressive and for me brought to mind the natural, slow moving scenes from the movie Baraka. What wasn’t as pleasing though was the frustration that could be seen in many of her followers because they couldn’t see that outlandish dress made of pretty balls and her blue hair because for whatever mysterious reason, she did not want to show her own figure on the screens. Many of the songs she chose to play were harsh and in your face and at times it felt like the images of fire and the earth seen from far away were supposed to act as a juxtaposition for the blasts of bass noise and industrial sounding beats that pounded the audience. Another possibly is that she was moved by Trent Reznor’s show on the previous night and wanted to feel like she was in Nine Inch nails.

This is the set list she played:

1. Cosmogony

2. Hunter

3. Thunderbolt

4. Moon

5. Crystalline

6. Hollow

7. Hidden Place

8. Heirloom

9. One Day

10. Jóga

11. Pagan Poetry

12. Army of Me

13. Mutual Core

14. Hyperballad

(mixed with “Freak” by LFO)

15. Pluto

16. Náttúra

Encore:

17. Óskasteinar

18. Declare Independence