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Otherworldly Bjork thinks outside the box

- Bjork - Biophilia (Warner Music) Rating: 9 (out of 10) Naturalist Edward O.

- Bjork - Biophilia (Warner Music) Rating: 9 (out of 10)

Naturalist Edward O. Wilson's hypothesis that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems supplied Björk Guðmundsdóttir with the title and science for her latest project. She's taken care of the esthetics herself.

Biophilia inextricably bundles her organic musical thoughts with the technology used to produce them. She brought in various electronic gizmos as part of the creative process and a live preview earlier this year in Manchester, England featured her performing with an Icelandic choir and custom-made instruments (such as a Tesla coil, gamelan percussion and four "gravity harps" suspended on pendulums) controlled by iPads.

This musical arsenal is also at her disposal on the Biophilia recording. The clicks and whirs of the sonic flow effortlessly move back and forth between pop music and sound experimentation. Like a shamanistic Charles Ives Bjork is creating a universal symphony one app at a time. Brilliant, essential music.

- Sevara Nazarkhan - Tortadur (Sevaramusic) Rating: 8 (out of 10)

Uzbek singer Sevara Nazarkhan studied voice at the Tashkent State Conservatory and also plays the doutar, a 15th century two-stringed lute. Something of a pop star in her own country her 2003 album (Yol Bolsin) with the late French producer Hector Zazou mixed traditional Eastern concepts with Western modernism.

Nazarkhan's latest releaseTortadur sticks strictly to the rich traditional Central Asian repertoire and features her performing with a who's who of classically-trained Uzbek musicians.

- John Goodman

- Various Artists - The Lost Notebooks Of Hank Williams (Sony Music) Rating: 7 (out of 10)

Four notebooks of Hank Williams lyrics moved around Nashville vaults for decades before Bob Dylan was given a chance to take a look at them. Initially he intended to devote an entire record to the material but then decided to bring other musicians into the picture.

Lucky for us he did. Everything on The Lost Notebooks is interesting but not until Lucinda Williams takes over on track 5 with "I'm So Happy I Found You" is it anything more than an archival exercise. Williams makes the song her own with a soulful performance that takes the material to an entirely different level. Equally fine contributions follow from Rodney Crowell and Vince Gill on "I Hope You Shed a Million Tears," Patty Loveless with "You're Through Fooling Me," Levon Helm on "You'll Never Again Be Mine" and Hank's granddaughter Holly Williams on "Blue is My Heart."

- John Goodman