Björk wanted Ovule to sound “like the Cantina band” from Star Wars, says beatmaker

“It’s been a reference point for our work ever since.”

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Cantina Band Bjork

How influential is the music of the Cantina band from Star Wars? If it’s any indication, the fictitious band was the centre of a key creative exercise in Björk’s new album, Fossora, according to a new interview.

Members of electronic trio sideproject, who collaborated with Björk on her new “biological techno” LP, spoke to The Guardian about some musical direction they received for the song Ovule.

“[Björk] explained where the song was set in her mind – some obscure Finnish jazz bar that exists in the future,” Örlygur Steinar Arnalds says. “She said, it should sound like the Cantina band. So we tried for a jazzy, futuristic beat.”

The members of sideproject are in their twenties, but became familiar with the Cantina band via the Lego Star Wars video game. “For our generation, it’s a very meme’d piece of music”, adds sideproject member Atli Finnsson.

The all-Bith music band made its appearance in the first Star Wars film back in 1977. Composer John Williams created the jazzy music performed by the band and their alien instruments.

However, neither the timbre of the instruments, nor William’s composition were the focal points of Björk’s direction. More so, it was the creative exercise of imagining music from another world.

“That conversation with her was really inspirational, imagining music in another world. Like, what would music sound like without any contact with jazz?” says Arnalds. “It’s been a reference point for our work ever since – writing music for some other place, imagining a world where music would sound like the music we make. And Star Wars is a great starting point for that.”

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