"Moon" is a song by Icelandic artist Björk. It is the first track on her album '' Biophilia'' and was released as the fourth and final single before the release of the album on September 6, 2011. Each song in the album features a theme related to nature. In "Moon", Björk explores the

lunar cycle Concerning the lunar month of ~29.53 days as viewed from Earth, the lunar phase or Moon phase is the shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion, which can be expressed quantitatively using areas or angles, or described qualitatively using the t ...

s and the effect they have on Earth.

Background and composition

The song "Moon" is based on four different

sequences In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called t ...

played by four different harpists:

Zeena Parkins Zeena Parkins (born 1956) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist active in experimental, free improvised, contemporary classical, and avant-jazz music; she is known for having "reinvented the harp". Parkins performs on standard har ...

, Shelley Burgon, Sara Cutler, Carol Emanuel. These sequences repeat throughout the song, resembling the

s. The song has 17/8

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note va ...

with instrumental sections in 5/8. The lyrics to "Moon" deals with themes such as

rebirth Rebirth may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Film * ''Rebirth'' (2011 film), a 2011 Japanese drama film * ''Rebirth'' (2016 film), a 2016 American thriller film * ''Rebirth'', a documentary film produced by Project Rebirth * ''The Re ...

, start over and

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

, making reference to the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

as "adrenalin pearls placed in the gods' mouths". About the song, Björk explained: "With each new moon we complete a cycle and are offered renewal —to take risks, to connect with other people, to love, to give. The symbolism of the moon as the realm of imagination, melancholy, and regeneration is expressed in the song"

Music video

The music video for "Moon" premiered on September 23, 2011, in Björk's official YouTube page. In the video, Björk's image is alternated with images of the moon, resembling the moon's phases. The singer wears the same orange wig and brown custom that is seen in the '' Biophilia'' album cover.

Promotion

Music video

The video for "Moon" was directed by Björk,

M/M Paris M/M (Paris) is an art and design partnership consisting of Mathias Augustyniak (born 1967) and Michael Amzalag (born 1968), established in Paris in 1992. M/M are best known for their art direction and collaborations with musicians ( Björk, Madon ...

, Inez & Vinoodh and James Merry and recorded spontaneously during the photo sessions for ''Biophilia''. Björk sings the song with the orange

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macro ...

that also features on the ''Biophilia'' album and singles cover, in one take. Images from the 'Moon' app appear superposed throughout the video.

App

The 'Moon' app for

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...

and iPhone was developed by 18-year-old programmer

Max Weisel Max Weisel (born November 12, 1991 in Tucson, Arizona) is an American software engineer and digital artist. His experience as an iOS app developer predates the release of Apple's App Store. He's collaborated with avant garde artist Björk, to pr ...

, and is a musical sequencer which features 17 moons (representing each pulse of a time bar in the song). By changing the position of each moon, one changes the note it produces, thus forming a new melody each time which can be played with Björk's voice. The app also allows one to play the original song.

Track listing

Digital download #"Moon" – 5:40

Official versions

*Album version – 5:45 *Single version – 5:40 * The Slips Remix – 6:09 released on Part 8 of the Biophilia Remix Series *MIF live version – 6:22 (Biophilia: Manual Edition CD2)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moon (Bjork song) 2011 singles 2011 songs Björk songs Song recordings produced by Björk Songs written by Björk Songs about the Moon