Bjork and Ennio Morricone have accepted this year's Polar Music Prize at a ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall, according to the Associated Press.

Founded by ABBA's manager and lyricist Stig Anderson in 1989, the award is typically shared between a pop performer and a classical artist, given to honour “exceptional achievements” in music.

Swedish King Carl Gustaf presented the awards on Wednesday 1 September, delivering each artist the prize of AU$152,000 (1 million Swedish Kroner).

Bjork's father Gudmundur Gunnarsson read the jury's citation at the ceremony and recalled how his daughter had started singing at an early age.

Bjork, 44, was described as, "an untameable force of nature, an artist who marches to nobody's tune but her own," by the prize committee. The Icelandic singer was also cited for "her ability to take avant-garde to the top of the charts” as she "embraced technological advances, combining computers with ancient sounds.”

The committee complimented Morricone's music as, "congenial compositions and arrangements [that] lift our existence to another plain.” His breakthrough soundtrack for the 1964 Clint Eastwood western, A Fistful of Dollars, was remembered as a "brand new kind of music that set the tone for half a century of film music.” The 81-year-old has scored over 450 films, for directors such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Roman Polanski.

The Polar award has previously been awarded to Sir Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, B. B. King, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Ravi Shankar and Joni Mitchell.