a playlist for short 044, arca, in three songs
arca co-produced most of björk’s vulnicura. two years later came “piel”: her own voice, in front. music from makers who stood behind the sound, stepping in front with their own voice: björk, sophie, simón díaz, laurie anderson, and arca herself.
14 tracks, in the order they play
each block is a track, drawn as long as it plays60:07
notget
01 · björk
where the short begins: björk in front, arca underneath. the booklet credits the music and the production to both.
6:26it’s okay to cry
02 · sophie
a producer’s own voice, and her face, for the first time: the same year as “piel”. she is on arca’s kick i.
3:50piel
03 · arca
“here’s my voice and all my guts: feel free to judge it.” start here.
4:07water me
04 · fka twigs
four years earlier: arca behind another singer. produced by arca and fka twigs.
3:24the wilhelm scream
05 · james blake
his club records cut his voice into pieces; here it stands whole, in a song his father wrote.
4:33caballo viejo
06 · simón díaz
one of venezuela’s best-known songs, by the man who revived the tonada, the plains’ work song her singing comes from. listen for its lines in the next track.
2:57reverie
07 · arca
she sings two lines of “caballo viejo” inside her own song.
3:12a little lost
08 · arthur russell
a cellist who made disco records under other names, with little here but his voice.
3:18gotham lullaby
09 · meredith monk
the words fall away: a voice and a piano. björk has sung it on stage.
4:17o superman
10 · laurie anderson
the voice as a machine: one looped syllable for a pulse, the rest through a vocoder.
8:25time
11 · arca
her voice in front again, this time in english.
2:45klk
12 · arca, rosalía
the dance breaks out.
3:47sueño
13 · arca
the short’s third song: her voice with no words, and the record’s last held note.
4:14bedtime story
14 · madonna
end credits: a pop song björk wrote, about words being useless. arca has called björk and madonna her two maternal figures.
4:52