It's quite apparent that in Britain the annual Swedish music prize Polar Music Prize doesn't exactly excite the media and the masses.
The Polar Music Prize was created in 1989 by the late Sickan Andersson, lyricist and manager of ABBA, and a man with a massive amount of loose cash, to be handed out every year to two music artists who have made significant contributions to the art of music. The first awards were handed out in 1992, to sir Paul McCartney and the Baltic States (so not only musicians are given the award).
Why should I write about it here? Only because this year Ennio Morricone and Björk are the winners.
I would argue that Björk's first album Debut (1993) is rather brilliant, but after that I find her music more annoying than good, although as a person she's rather appealing. The film connection is foremost her part in Dancer in the Dark (2000). Here's her video to a single release from Debut, Human Behaviour, directed by Michel Gondry:
The music of Ennio Morricone on the other hand I've been addicted to for decades. There are not that many whose music has been so important to me. I listen to him almost on a daily basis. The melancholy and infinite sadness of the music is just magnificent, as is the use of silence and odd sounds. But I feel no need to write more about him, he's famous enough. Here's instead the opening of Frantic (1988):
