Bodies Without Organs

Infobox musical artist
Name = BWO

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Img_capt = Bodies Without Organs. Szczecin, 2007.
Img_size =
Landscape = yes
Background = group_or_band
Alias = Bodies Without Organs
Origin = Sweden
Genre = Dance Electronica Pop
Years_active = 2004 – present
Label = Capitol Records (Scandinavia and Eastern Europe)
Universal Music Domestic (Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
Magic Records (Poland)
Shell Records (UK).
Associated_acts = Army of Lovers, Vacuum, Alcazar, Page
URL = [http://www.electronordica.com www.electronordica.com]
[http://www.bwo-fanclub.com Official fanclub]
[http://www.myspace.com/bwospace BWO on MySpace]
Current_members = Martin Rolinski
Alexander Bard
Marina Schiptjenko

Bodies Without Organs is an electronic pop group, formed in Sweden in 2004. Since early 2006 they have usually been presented under the shortened name BWO. In Sweden they have enjoyed considerable commercial success throughout their career, so far notching up 18 hit singles, including a Number 1 with "Temple of Love", and four Top 10 albums including a Number 1 with "Halcyon Days", and have won several major Swedish music awards. They have also had significant chart success in several Eastern European countries including Finland, Ukraine and Russia, and in 2008 some moderate success in the United Kingdom.

Origins

Alexander Bard, whose previous music projects had included Army of Lovers, Vacuum and Alcazar, started work on a new project during 2003, working with the record producer Anders Hansson who became the band's co-producer. They auditioned over 35 different vocalists before meeting Martin Rolinski who was duly chosen as lead singer. Marina Schiptjenko, an art-dealer and a one-time member of Vacuum, then came on board as the third member of what became Bodies Without Organs "Exclusive interview with Bodies Without Organs", http://www.strelna.ru/en/comments/music/44717.htm] .

There was initially a suggestion that the band would be a four-piece including Jean-Pierre Barda from Army of Lovers, but this did not come to fruition, and Barda's explicit involvement extended only as far as co-writing BWO's first single "Living In A Fantasy" . (In 2008 Army of Lovers did make a cameo in BWO's music video for "The Bells of Freedom".)

The name of the band derives from the philosophical term body without organs, developed by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari in their 1972 book "Anti-Œdipus". Bard, an author and lecturer of philosophy, has referred to the ideas of Deleuze in his books "Netocracy - The New Power Elite And Life After Capitalism" and "The Global Empire", both co-written with Jan Söderqvist.

At no point has BWO been a full-time project for any of the band's members - Bard continues his other career, notable in its own right, as a philosopher, while Schiptjenko remains an art dealer in Stockholm and Rolinski, having finished his university studies in Göteborg, works as a civil engineer.

tyle

Musically, BWO have come to represent the more commercial side of the Swedish electro scene, also featuring artists like Robyn, The Knife, Jenny Wilson and September. Alexander Bard has claimed that BWO's electronic pop music is the missing link between ABBA and Kraftwerk "A missing link between ABBA and Kraftwerk? BWO is here", http://www.armyoflovers.net/reading_corner/sylvester.htm] .

Visually, BWO have been working with most of the high-brow Scandinavian music video directors, including Fredrik Boklund, Kalle Haglund and the award-winning Kamisol team. Like most of the other Swedish electro acts, BWO have been featured in hundreds of fashion articles,Nonspecific|date=July 2008 working closely on their visual style with their in-house Irish stylist Sally O'Sullivan. This visual style has however often been unusual, particularly on the part of Alexander Bard, attracting comparisons with Army of Lovers; BWO's performances at Melodifestivalen 2008 in full Elizabethan-style costume were a prominent example of this. Many of their music videos have also contained unusual and eccentric themes or elements, such as stigmata, mild sado-masochism, animal costumes or the faces of band members being superimposed on live creatures; however these have generally steered clear of the controversy often attracted by Army of Lovers videos.

Chart and airplay success

2004-2005: Prototype

BWO's debut single release was "Living in a Fantasy" in May 2004. This was only a moderate Number 44 hit in Sweden, and the style and production of the song differ somewhat from those of any BWO song released subsequently. Subsequent releases were more successful in Sweden, particularly third single "Sixteen Tons of Hardware" (Number 11) in February 2005. BWO's debut album "Prototype", first released in Russia in December 2004, was released in Sweden in March 2005, reaching Number 2 in the album charts and attaining platinum status. Eventually no fewer than seven tracks from the album went on to be Swedish hit singles, with sixth single "Sunshine in the Rain" (Number 12) being another high point.

"Sixteen Tons of Hardware" and "Voodoo Magic" were both hit singles in Finland. Two singles off the album, "Living in a Fantasy" and "Sixteen Tons of Hardware" went Number 1 in the Europa Plus Airplay Chart in Russia, and the album soon crossed over to neighboring countries, generating no less than five Top 5 hit singles in Ukraine and two Top 5 hit singles in Hungary.Fact|date=July 2008 The track "Gone" was a Number 1 hit in Lebanon.Fact|date=July 2008

2006: Halcyon Days

BWO's second album "Halcyon Days", released in April 2006, entered the Swedish Album Chart at Number 1, shipping gold and generating four further hit singles, of which the first single "Temple of Love" was a Number 1 smash in Sweden and charted across Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

Halcyon Days was followed by a remix collection called "Halcyon Nights", released in December 2006.

2007-2008: Fabricator

A third studio album, "Fabricator", was released in Sweden on September 19 2007, entering the Swedish charts at Number 6. A pre-release single "Save My Pride", was released in May 2007, becoming BWO's fourth Top 20 single in Sweden. It also went Number 1 on major Turkish radio station Radio Mydonese's Top 40 Countdown in July 2007. [ [http://www.radyomydonose.com.tr/main.aspx?page=top40&WEEK_ID=77 BWO on 1, Retrieved 07/26/08] ] The singles "Let it Rain" and "Rhythm Drives Me Crazy" were released simultaneously in August 2007. "Rhythm Drives Me Crazy" was chosen as the theme for the Swedish team in the Women's Football World Cup in China in September 2007, and was a fourth Top 20 hit for BWO in Finland. A fourth single "The Destiny Of Love" was released in October 2007. A fifth, "Give Me the Night", was released at the end of December 2007, but became the only BWO single (as of August 2008) to fail to reach the Swedish singles chart.

2008: Pandemonium - The Singles Collection

A "greatest hits" album called "Pandemonium - The Singles Collection" was released on April 9 2008. It contained most of their previous singles plus 3 new songs. "Lay Your Love On Me", their entry for Melodifestivalen 2008, was the first single release, reaching Number 2 in the Swedish singles chart, plus their first Number 1 in the influential Sveriges Radio P3 Tracks chart. "Barcelona" was a less successful second single, but third single "The Bells of Freedom" became a sixth Top 20 single after a tie-in with Europride 2008 in Stockholm.

A DVD by the same name, containing all video clips, will be released in the fall of 2008.

In the United Kingdom

Signed to small independent record label Shell Records in the UK, BWO have achieved moderate success with a few single releases. Initially two of their Swedish hit singles, "Sixteen Tons of Hardware" and "Chariots of Fire", reached the Top 10 of the British club charts.Fact|date=July 2008 With a more concerted UK release including physical CD singles, the remixed 2005 single "Sunshine in the Rain" hit number 1 in the UK indie chart and reached Number 69 in the main UK singles chart in March 2008. "Lay Your Love On Me" was released in the UK in late July 2008, charted also at Number 69 in the main singles chart, and Number 2 in the UK indie charts. BWO's third physical single release in the UK will be "Will My Arms Be Strong Enough", it is due for release on the 22nd of September.

All three single releases by BWO have been playlisted by BBC Radio 2 "The UK's most popular radio station" and a few music TV channels. They have attracted more attention in gay media, and have twice appeared in the prestigious Saturday night slot at the G-A-Y nightclub in London.

Melodifestivalen participation

BWO competed in the Swedish Melodifestivalen 2005 with the song "Gone", written by the band's co-producer Anders Hansson, but failed to qualify for the final, finishing fifth out of eight in one of the four semi-finals.

In 2006, they competed once again in Melodifestivalen with the song "Temple Of Love", this time qualifying for the final at the Stockholm Globe Arena, where they finished second behind Carola. "Temple Of Love" went on to reach Number 1 in the Swedish singles chart, and has been assessed as the most internationally successful Melodifestivalen song from the 2006 competition."Melodifestivalen 2000-2007: Most successful songs outside Sweden", http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/10581]

During 2007 BWO stated in interviews that they had no intention of returning to Melodifestivalen, but might consider instead seeking to enter Eurovision for Martin Rolinski's homeland of Poland."BWO Push Euro Claim", http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/9273] However, there was a change of heart, and BWO entered Melodifestivalen for a third time in 2008 with a song called "Lay Your Love on Me". This was co-written by Bard and Hansson together with Bobby Ljunggren and Henrik Wikström, ironically the two composers who wrote Carola's winning song which beat BWO in 2006. Going into their semi-final as heavy bookmakers' favourites to qualify, "Tonight: third semi final in Sweden", http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/10612] the song duly progressed directly to the final, held at the Stockholm Globe Arena on 15 March, 2008, where the song finished in third place behind winner Charlotte Perrelli and second-placed Sanna Nielsen.

Recognition

BWO won the prestigious Rockbjörnen award in both 2005 and 2006, voted Sweden's most popular band, all categories. In 2006 they received a Grammis Award for Sweden's most popular band of the year. BWO were nominated for four Grammis Awards in 2005 for the "Prototype" album and five Grammis Awards in 2006 for the "Halcyon Days" album. BWO were also nominated for dance act of the year in 2006 at the NRJ Scandinavian Awards in Helsinki and won the category for the most popular band.

Discography

Albums

Singles

The UK chart placing of "Sunshine in the Rain" was attained in March 2008, and that of "Lay Your Love on Me" in August 2008.

ee also

*Melodifestivalen 2005 (semifinals)
*Melodifestivalen 2006
*Melodifestivalen 2008

References