"The Dull Flame of Desire" is a song recorded by Icelandic singer

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...

featuring Anohni from the band

Antony and the Johnsons Antony and the Johnsons is an American music group presenting the work of Anohni and her collaborators. Career British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to release Anohni's music through his Durtro label ...

. It was released as the fifth and final single from her seventh full-length studio album, '' Volta'', on 29 September 2008. She sung it twelve times on her global Volta Tour, often with Anohni.

Background

The entirety of the lyrics to ''The Dull Flame of Desire'' are an English translation of a Russian poem by

Fyodor Tyutchev Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev ( rus, Фёдор Ива́нович Тю́тчев, r=Fyódor Ivánovič Tyútčev, links=1, p=ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈtʲʉt͡ɕːɪf; Pre-Reform orthography: ; – ) was a Russian poet and diplomat. ...

, from its original appearance in the

Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky ( rus, Андрей Арсеньевич Тарковский, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ɐrˈsʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ tɐrˈkofskʲɪj; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Russian filmmaker. Widely considered one of the greates ...

film '' Stalker'' (1979).

Music video

It was first reported on the official site of

that Anohni and Björk had shot a video for "Dull Flame of Desire". The news was subsequently removed from the site. A few months later Björk revealed in an interview that she and Anohni had recorded themselves singing the song against a

green screen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...

in New York,
and that she had sent the raw footage to three directors who had taken part in the video contest for her previous single "

Innocence Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. In relation ...

". It was later announced that Christoph Jantos (

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

), Masahiro Mogari (

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

), and Marçal Cuberta Juncà (

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan language, Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter River, Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in ...

) were the chosen directors. Each director was given their own section of the film to develop how they wished - on completion the three films were edited together in London to make the final music video. The video has three segments. In the first part (directed by Masahiro Mogari), a lot of little white dots are moving until they form Björk and Anohni's faces. The second part (directed by Marçal Cuberta) features the footage of Björk and Anohni with a threshold effect. In the third part (directed by Christoph Jantos, animated by Marta Bala), their faces are seen moving until both faces morph into one. A different edit of the video was done for one of Modeselektor's remixes of the song and shown on MTV..

Track listing

The limited edition "multiformat" box set consists of a sticker-sealed fold out box with five colored nesting boxes containing two 12" vinyl singles, a CD and a DVD in colored paper sleeves.Dull Flames of Desire Next Release
The release includes two new remixes by

Modeselektor Modeselektor is a German electronic music duo consisting of Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. History The group members met in 1992 in Berlin with group member Szary performing live acid house music at illegal underground parties, under t ...

of "The Dull Flame of Desire" and a new remix of Björk's previous single "

" by Sinden. The

Mark Stent Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

mixes refer to the album version and its instrumental.

Twelve-inch double heavyweight vinyl

# "Dull Flame of Desire" (

’s Rmx for Girls) # "Dull Flame of Desire" (Modeselektor’s Rmx for Boys) # "Innocence" (Sinden Remix) # "Dull Flame of Desire" (

Album Mix)

CD

# "Dull Flame of Desire" (Modeselektor’s Rmx For Girls) # "Dull Flame of Desire" (Modeselektor’s Rmx For Boys) # "Dull Flame of Desire" (Mark Stent Album Mix) # "Dull Flame of Desire" (Video / Radio Edit) # "Dull Flame of Desire" (Mark Stent Instrumental) # "Innocence" (Sinden Remix)

DVD

# "Dull Flame of Desire" (Music video)

Charts

References

External links

The Dull Flame Of Desire releases at DiscogsVolta website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dull Flame of Desire, The 2007 songs 2008 singles Björk songs Song recordings produced by Björk Songs written by Björk One Little Indian Records singles Female vocal duets Chamber pop songs Songs based on poems