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The Knife | |
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Olof Dreijer of The Knife performing at Sónar 2006 in Barcelona, Spain |
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Background information | |
Origin | Gothenburg, Västra Götaland, Sweden |
Genres | electronica, Electropop, synthpop,[1] experimental, dark ambient, minimal techno, trip hop, trance |
Years active | 1999–present |
Labels | Rabid, Brille, Mute, V2 |
Website | theknife.net |
Members | |
Karin Dreijer Andersson Olof Dreijer |
The Knife are a Swedish electronic music duo from Gothenburg, formed in 1999.[2] The group consists of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, who together also run their own record company, Rabid Records. They first received international attention after their song "Heartbeats", covered by José González, appeared in a commercial by Sony. Subsequent songs have appeared on a number of television shows. Their first tour took place in 2006, as well as the release of their critically acclaimed album Silent Shout. They have won a number of Swedish Grammis, but refuse to attend awards ceremonies. They have appeared in public wearing Venetian masks. Andersson released a solo album under the name Fever Ray in 2009, while her brother released several EPs as Oni Ayhun in late 2009 and early 2010.
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Formed in 1999, the group first gained international recognition when José González covered their song "Heartbeats" on his 2003 album, Veneer. The cover was used by Sony in a commercial for BRAVIA television sets, and released as a single in 2006. The group commented on this in a Dagens Nyheter article, claiming that Sony paid a large sum of money to use the song. Despite the group's anti-commercial views, they justified the transaction by citing their need for money to establish a record company.
Having never before performed live, The Knife went on tour in 2006, and after selling out shows worldwide, a DVD of the tour was announced. The DVD was released in Sweden on 8 November 2006, and is titled Silent Shout: An Audio Visual Experience.
On 4 August 2009, the band announced that, in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock, they would be writing an opera for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. The opera, titled Tomorrow, In a Year, is based on Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. In January 2010, the band announced that they would release a studio version on 1 March.[3]
In a post on the official Fever Ray website in September 2010, Karin stated that she and Olof "have started playing together again", hinting that new material may be on the way.[4] On 18 April 2011, as part of a post on their website concerning discrimination against Romani people in Europe, The Knife announced that they were recording a new album to be released in 2012.[5] The Knife has been casting people for their next video which was shot in late april.
The Knife rarely cooperate with the media or the mainstream music scene. Until 2006, they did not perform live concerts. The group rarely makes public appearances; most of their promotional photos feature the members wearing masks with birds' beaks, similar to the traditional Venetian Medico Della Peste (plague doctor) masks worn during Carnival.
The Knife won a Grammis award as best pop group of the year 2003, but they boycotted the ceremony by sending two representatives of the Guerrilla Girls, with the number 50 written on their costumes, as a protest against male dominance in the music industry.[6] Their album Deep Cuts was also nominated for a Grammis as the best record of the year 2003, although that award went to The Cardigans. At the Grammis awards in January 2007, The Knife won in all six categories that they were nominated in: Composer of the Year, Music DVD of the Year, Producer of the Year, Pop Group of the Year, Album of the Year and Artist of the Year. Again, they did not attend the award ceremony. On another occasion, they did not come to collect the award but sent a manipulated video that muffled their voices and made them look very elderly.
Silent Shout was named the best album of 2006 by Pitchfork Media.[7] The song "We Share Our Mothers' Health" from the album was made available for free as the iTunes Store's Single of the Week in late 2006. This song was also featured in the ABC series Ugly Betty, as well as an episode of CSI: NY. In August 2007, "Heartbeats" was featured in an episode of the HBO series Entourage.[8]
Their song "Pass This On" was used in the 2010 drama film Les amours imaginaires by Quebec director Xavier Dolan.[9] The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
In a 2006 interview with Pitchfork Media, The Knife cited David Lynch, Aki Kaurismäki, Korean cinema, Trailer Park Boys, Donnie Darko and Doom as inspirations for their work.[10] In addition, Karin named Sonic Youth, Kate Bush, Le Tigre and Siouxsie and the Banshees, while Olof cited techno, grime and Southern hip hop.[6]
In 2008, Karin announced that she would release a solo album under the name Fever Ray in March 2009. The eponymous album was digitally released (on iTunes and via other outlets) in advance of this date.
Olof performs as both DJ Coolof and Oni Ayhun.
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Year | Awards | Category |
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2003 | Nöjesguiden's Stockholm Award | Music Category[11] |
Swedish Hit Music Awards | Best Video for "Heartbeats"[11] | |
Swedish National Radio P3 Gold | Group of the Year[11] | |
Grammis | Pop Group of the Year[11] | |
2004 | Manifest Awards | Pop Rock[11] |
Scandinavian Alternative Music Awards (SAMA) | Song of the Year for "Heartbeats" | |
2006 | Pitchfork Media | Album of the Year |
Manifest Awards | Dance/House Techno of the Year | |
Live Performers of the Year | ||
2007 | Swedish National Radio P3 Gold | Group of the Year |
Dance of the Year | ||
Grammis | Artist of the Year | |
Pop Album of the Year for Silent Shout | ||
Songwriters of the Year | ||
Pop Producers of the Year | ||
Music-DVD of the Year for Silent Shout: An Audiovisual Experience | ||
Pop Group of the Year | ||
SAMA | Song of the Year for "Marble House" | |
Album of the Year for Silent Shout |
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Autopsia is an art project dealing with music and visual production. Autopsia gathers authors of different professions in realization of multimedia projects. Its art practice began in London in the late 1970s, continued during the 1980s in the art centers of former Yugoslavia. Since 1990, Autopsia has acted from Prague, Czech Republic. At the beginning of its activity, Autopsia issued dozens of MCs. In the period after 1989, twenty CDs were issued, at first for Staalplaat from Amsterdam, then for German label Hypnobeat and London's Gymnastic Records. One of its compositions is a part of the soundtrack for Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book. Music production of Autopsia can be classified as experimental, breakcore, avant-garde, ambient, industrial; it's associated with a large graphic production which consists of original graphic objects, design of flyers, posters, booklets, CDs, experimental films and audio installations.
"The Knife" is a protest song by progressive rock band Genesis from their second album Trespass from 1970. It was performed live often in the band's early days (a live version appears on the Genesis Live album from 1973) and has appeared sporadically in the band's setlists all the way up through 1982 (after 1975, however, they performed an edited four-minute version). The first half of the song was released as a single in May 1971 with the second half as the B-side, but it did not chart.
The song was unusually aggressive for Genesis at the time, as most of their work consisted of soft, pastoral acoustic textures and poetic lyrics. It features a bouncy, march-like organ riff, heavily distorted guitars and bass, and fast drumming. (Peter Gabriel said he wanted to write something that had the excitement of "Rondo" by The Nice.) In the lyrics of the song, Gabriel, influenced by a book on Gandhi, "wanted to try and show how all violent revolutions inevitably end up with a dictator in power".
I have taken
Off my robe
Why did I
Put it on again
I have washed
My feet
Why did
I Soil them again
An evil in my heart lurks
Permitted and un-judged
Breeding failure and sorrow
Some unnoticed and forgotten sewer
I want to be a dove
In the clefts of
the rock
In the hiding places
On the mountain side
Show me your face
Let me hear your voice
(X4) Bring me to long for the knife, which shall set me free
Your love
A love that forgives
Any failure
Spans any distance
Withstands any tempest
A new love
A fresh love