"The Dull Flame of Desire" | ||||
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Single by Björk featuring Antony Hegarty | ||||
from the album Volta | ||||
B-side | "Innocence" | |||
Released | 29 September 2008 (UK) | |||
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Genre | ||||
Length | 7:30 | |||
Label | One Little Indian | |||
Writer(s) |
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Producer(s) | Björk | |||
Björk featuring Antony Hegarty singles chronology | ||||
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"The Dull Flame of Desire" is a song recorded by Icelandic singer Björk featuring Anohni from the band Antony and the Johnsons. The track was released as the fifth and final single from her seventh full-length studio album, Volta, on 29 September 2008. Björk has performed the song 12 times on her global Volta Tour, often with Anohni onstage. The lyrics to the song are an English translation of a Russian poem by Fyodor Tyutchev, as it appears in the Andrei Tarkovsky film, Stalker.
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. The release includes two new remixes by Modeselektor of "The Dull Flame of Desire" and a new remix of Björk's previous single "Innocence" by Sinden. The Mark Stent mixes refer to the album version and its instrumental.
It was first reported on the official site of Antony and the Johnsons 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 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".
We recorded our part in front of a green screen, and sent it by email to the directors, one in Japan, one in Spain, and one in Germany. They're collaborating via email. I don't know how long it will take. I was being pressured by my record company [to make videos] for the more up-tempo songs, but I have great love for "Dull Flame of Desire", and it was very emotionally special for me to make that with Antony. I thought this would be a good way of doing it.