http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AX2bcWtg1Q

A fascinating duet between Björk & PJ Harvey at the 1994 Brit Awards that was recently mentioned by The New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones in his review of Harvey’s latest LP, Let England Shake. As he describes:

Björk stays mum for a verse, and then eases her fifty-foot voice into the song. As Harvey begins to play and sing harder, Björk rockets above her, toying with the words and making disjointed vocal leaps. When they end—not only the song but a certain era of raw performance—on the words “that’s what I say,” it’s absolutely thrilling.

The only observation I’d add is that there are moments (especially toward the beginning) where it feels as though all could go horribly wrong, but, like most artists of this caliber, Harvey and Björk use the challenge to push what could’ve been an, um, satisfying yet less memorable performance into a timeless moment. Just another stop on their respective long-running musical winning streaks.