Bjork thinks of her songs as "folk" music.

While the Icelandic singer - who is currently in the process of launching her latest project, 'Biophilia' - initially agrees her music can be classed as pop, she would prefer to think of it as folk.

She told The Guardian newspaper: "Perhaps I would rather call it folk music - folk music of our time. I was never too much into [Andy] Warhol and the whole pop thing - it felt a bit superficial. I prefer folk. People. Humans."

Bjork is staging an ambitious presentation of 'Biophilia', involving a 24-piece Icelandic choir, and a full audio-visual experience, with numerous costume changes, as well as video to accompany each track, but she has made the decision to ban mobile phones and filming her performance as she finds it distracting.

She explained: "I feel since everyone has made such an effort to be there all together at the same place and time, we might as well go for it.

"It can be hard to play music for people who are filming you for Twitter or whatever. It's like going to a restaurant with someone who keeps texting their friends while you are speaking to them - hard to concentrate."

'Biophilia' is being staged as part of the Manchester International Festival between June 27 and July 16.