Bjork - 2017 album

Details TK ("tracklist: no") but...

http://shop.bjork.com/pre-order.html

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXS5nimFcog/?hl=en&taken-by=bjork

"warmthness, bjork"

I really love how she compliments visually every album and tour but I haven't felt particularly interested in anything she's done since Medulla. I've listened to every one of her albums at least 10 times and nothing of her recent material sticks out to me (safe from the music videos and the amazing dresses, maybe a couple of musical moments here and there).
She has long deviated from making pop, her more recent experiments aren't particularly interesting or innovative to my ears and even though she is usually joined by great string players or electronic producers I don't know how to describe it properly but I feel it all sounds very sharp... like it's missing something

for someone who is clearly very warm towards music and people, her production choices end up in the cold spectrum for me.

feel the same way moka for the most part.

Did like the last one because it was aesthetically a retread of Homogenic in some ways

While Vulnicura was probably her first release in a decade that actually moved me (i.e. it wasn't just stuff that I appreciated/admired but not loved), it was a bit too dark/depressing to listen to on a daily basis. So I'm having high hopes for this one. Apparently Arca's on board again - which will probably mean sharp/cold production, well, he's her new right hand now - but there are going to be flutes/woodwinds instead of strings this time, and it's her 'Tinder' album (lol) - about searching for utopia and being in love. She's used words like 'happy,' 'dreamworld' and 'paradise' to describe it. I wonder how it'll translate to the sound. I'm not hoping for a return to her 90s art-pop beginnings but something lush, beautiful and emotional like Vespertine would be great.

It's a retread of homogenic but much older... heartbroken but lacking that sense of wonder of what's next. I can't deal with that sort of statements at this point in my life tbh. Maybe in a couple of years.

Hopefully this new album is different, I miss her more playful side.

I don't know how to describe it properly but I feel it all sounds very sharp... like it's missing something

I think the problem for me is she has largely neglected to write catchy melodies for her last 3 or so albums, she just does this kind of warbling up and down the scale thing.

Some of the Vulnicura songs have stayed with me, but yeah I feel ya about lack of catchy melodies since... Vespertine? I mean, I appreciate that she has kept trying to push forward, but it's just lost me. I still check out each new album to see if it finally connects with me the way the first four albums did

I didn't like the last one much and REALLY didn't like Volta but I dig Biophillia more than most people it seems :C

I was very cool on Biophilia initially but for some reason it clicked after I ignored it for a year.

Some tidbits from a new piece in Dazed:

1. The focus of the album this time are flutes and woodwinds instead of strings.
2. The overall vibe of the record is light / airy / weightless, with only a few heavier moments.
3. Songs feature samples of birdsong and natural sounds; some sampled from David Toop's 1980 album Hekura, some recorded by Björk & Arca in Venezuela.
4. Arca is back as the co-producer, this time working with Björk from scratch. He apparently pushed her to explore further territories she only scratched with tracks like "Batabid" or "Ambergris March".
5. The album is not exactly political but it's about creating a future utopia, both in a personal and universal sense.
6. Possible first single - a love song called "The Gate" with a video directed by Andrew Thomas Huang.
7. One of the most melodic and straightforward tracks is called "Allow" and it's about her friendship with Arca. She's not sure yet if it'll be included on the album.
8. "Loss" is a song recorded with Rabit and it features his crushing jackhammer rhythms.
9. The song "Features Creatures" (lol) describes the feeling of seeing someone with the same beard and accent as a lover. BTW Björk is allegedly dating Tri Angle's Robin Carolan.
10. No title or release date yet but 'very soon'.

Thanks for that!

Ugh not too keen on Arca coming back as a producer his style is very claustrophobic for bjork.

maybe Bjork albums are better 'in description' these days. Cause that list sounds bloody awesome, yet I can only echo Moka's sentiment in the 'actuality of listening' to her recent output.

i didn't like volta at all and it did kind of put me off her for a while. I'll always listen but I feel similar to many here. Vespertine I loved; and I don't know if I'll love another album of hers like that again, but I'll always hope

I think Drawing Restraint 9 is where it started to go a bit awry. Even Volta felt like it was straining to be fun. chap OTM about her vocal melodies.

New single “The Gate” out digitally on September 18th and on single-sided 12” vinyl on September 22nd.
Video by Andrew Thomas Huang coming next week.

http://shop.bjork.com/the-gate.html

http://icelandairwaves.is/line-up/490027 !?

ok, not with her anymore. Google translated: "Tappi Tikarrass was born in 1981 and worked until 1983. At the beginning the band was composed of four boys from Reykjavík and later added to the singer Björk. The band drew a lot of attention at the time, for example, in the film Rokk in Reykjavík. The band was revived in 2015 and today the band consists of Eyþór Arnalds, Jakob Smári Magnússon, Eyjólfur Jóhannsson and Guðmundur Þór Gunnarsson, all the original members of the band. The band has finished recording a new album and has released two new songs this year, Spak and Listen."

I have had a really intense Bjork rennaisance lately, in the past 48h I have listened to:

Debut
Post
Debut Live
Post Live
Vespertine
Homogenic
Homogenic Live
Vespertine Live

I have discovered a LOT, namely this track where she breaks out into "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" at the end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e57qKloIHrM

and this magnificent thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb-pobBiKkI

“The Gate” is out now.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5YmQRn9i1ZDRfMUt5M80Cv

This is heavy Medulla mode Bjork. Probably not going to be into this until after 5 years, if I live that long.

wasn't expecting anything so wafty... one day I'll listen to the last album :/

This track is v boring

Hate to say it, but I agree. Seems like I tend to like Bjork more when she's upset than when she's content.

Oh except she's not content here. Oh well, guess I'm just not smitten atm.

I kind of expected it to sound like this. Oh well.

I’m not feeling the new track either; except for the gorgeous intro it sounds like a boring Biophilia outtake but with Arca’s production shtick (that I’m kind of over). But apparently the rest of the album is very different sound-wise. Airy and happy. She has put together a twelve-piece Icelandic flute ensemble and they are featured on the record. So I’ll hold my judgement until I hear the whole thing.

(The title is Utopia, by the way.)

Same. She was comparing it at least thematically in interviews to Vespertine, so I have no choice but to trust her.

Wow... It's like I've been listening to a different track entirely than all of you. This is beautiful, and miles away from Medulla.

Don't mind me, but if you call such an intimate, skin-on-skin song "dull" or "boring", then maybe Björk isn't for you anymore? Idk. I just don't get the negative responses. This sounds very much in line with Vespertine, minus the icicle Matmos production, stripped of sonicry. I agree it probably needs to be heard in the context of the album. But this is not dull, nor boring.

Sparse, minimal (those two alone rule out Medulla refs already imo), stark naked (like Vulnicura was). While I agree that this could be an unfortunate choice for a single (whatever a "single" means nowadays for artists who work album-wise, like Björk), the song itself is great. I am so on board, yet again.

with LBI on this

Ross <3

getting a selected ambient works 2 vibe from this

Utopia (out in November)

https://pitchfork.com/news/bjork-reveals-new-album-title/

oh, we already knew - sorry :-)

https://www.nowness.com/story/bjork-the-gate-alessandro-michele-andrew-thomas-huang-james-merry

Whatever piece of music that opens the video, I like very much. And I admit the song has more impact with the visual accompaniment.

great video, excited about bjork again

in the spirit of #metoo i would like to lend women around the world a hand with a more detailed description of my experience with a danish director . it feels extremely difficult to come out with something of this nature into the public , especially when immediately ridiculed by offenders . i fully sympathise with everyone who hesitates , even for years . but i feel it is the right time especially now when it could make a change . here comes a list of the encounters that i think count as sexual harassment :
1 after each take the director ran up to me and wrapped his arms around me for a long time in front of all crew or alone and stroked me sometimes for minutes against my wishes
2 when after 2 months of this i said he had to stop the touching , he exploded and broke a chair in front of everyone on set . like someone who has always been allowed to fondle his actresses . then we all got sent home .
3 during the whole filming process there were constant awkward paralysing unwanted whispered sexual offers from him with graphic descriptions , sometimes with his wife standing next to us .
4 while filming in sweden , he threatened to climb from his room´s balcony over to mine in the middle of the night with a clear sexual intention , while his wife was in the room next door . i escaped to my friends room . this was what finally woke me up to the severity of all this and made me stand my ground
5 fabricated stories in the press about me being difficult by his producer . this matches beautifully the weinstein methods and bullying . i have never eaten a shirt . not sure that is even possible .
6 i didnt comply or agree on being sexually harassed . that was then portrayed as me being difficult . if being difficult is standing up to being treated like that , i´ll own it .
hope
let´s break this curse
warmth
björk

I was not aware of this. Fuck Lars Von Trier.

As a lot of people noted, though, she was pretty clear at the time that the experience soured her on both acting and Von Trier. This is an angrier underscoring as to why.

Yes, fuck Von Trier.
Also, fuck his sleazy production team for enabling it and framing Björk afterwards as the crazy/difficult one with their ridiculous stories, and now claiming "they were the victims" and that "she dictated everything and was about to close a movie of 100m kroner". Boo-fucking-hoo.
And fuck Catherine Deneuve for being a sexual harrasment apologist and perpetuating Von Trier's lies in interviews for years.

Very proud of Björk for coming out with this story.

No way in hell I'll watch another Von trier after this

No way in hell I'll watch another Von trier after this

Talentless cunt anyway.

I think of all the noisy, pretentious edgelord type eejits of the movie industry in this era, he seems the most talentless and most unbearable personality disorder type of the lot. I can't imagine how anyone could sit through a movie like Nymphomaniac, unless they are being paid or someone is holding a gun to their head. I'm glad Bjork is mirking him up. But can't help feeling if there was a just God in this universe, then this fucker would have been taken out by an icicle of piss decades ago.

With a movie like "Nymphomanica", the non-rhetorical question that should spring to anyone's mind is "Why did he make this film?"

LOL, spot on. All of these 'noisy, pretentious edgelord types' are fucking shit anyway. (xp)

Ah, this is a Bjork thread, mildly going off topic there.

Amongst other things then, it's a damn shame as it's clear that Bjork would have made a great actor had she done more films. She was pretty amazing in that one film..

xpost to myself, not Tom D.

I think of all the noisy, pretentious edgelord type eejits of the movie industry in this era, he seems the most talentless and most unbearable personality disorder type of the lot. I can't imagine how anyone could sit through a movie like Nymphomaniac, unless they are being paid or someone is holding a gun to their head. I'm glad Bjork is mirking him up. But can't help feeling if there was a just God in this universe, then this fucker would have been taken out by an icicle of piss decades ago.

― calzino, Wednesday, 18 October 2017 09:44 (forty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ok, coming from you especially, I'm gonna have to cry foul here

also, while he was clearly out of control and shitty to bjork, this is one case where I would be interested in hearing his reply - especially because I don't think he'll deny everything or offer a dismissive apology like most men do.

but then again this is hard for me to process

Actually, he has already denied it:

Danish film director Lars von Trier has rejected Icelandic pop singer Björk’s allegation that he sexually harassed her during the making of the movie Dancer in the Dark.

“That was not the case. But that we were definitely not friends, that’s a fact,” Von Trier told Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in its online edition.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/17/not-the-case-lars-von-trier-denies-sexually-harassing-bjork

Imago, when you are talking about someone who it appears to me, has surrounded himself with a coterie of yes-people and enablers, and then from a position of power attempts to sexually harass a woman, then attempts to exert his power(and that of his group of acolytes) to punish her for knocking him back. Then I thought it would be fair to describe such behaviour as a symptom of an unbearable personality disorder. I didn't use a disability slur word or anything. Is this being "called out"? ffs!

"she dictated everything and was about to close a movie of 100m kroner"

.. I don't blame her, tbqh

your post would have still made the same sense without the bolded words, that's all! associating personality disorders with abusive behaviour isn't right imo

well yeah, you have to think of Hitler's feelings as well.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/22905037_10155821943851460_660015071562070825_o.jpg?oh=fe9975b343cac08b7eeff4e428960e01&oe=5A66ACBC

14 tracks, total running time of 01:11:38.
"Conceived by Björk & Arca"

wow

Bjork wins Halloween this year.

Artist who did the makeup is drag queen Hungry: https://www.instagram.com/isshehungry very sickening yet awesome work. I can see why Bjork would have chosen her work, it's very symmetrical and some of it even seems inspired by the same aesthetics bjork has used in the past. e.g.: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUzmenOjDLz/

I kind wish they have gone with something like that, this one is kind of disturbing and not as aesthetically pleasing what with the bird fetus and voldemort slits on the neck and the alien vagina on her forehead.

A few of the track titles (some might be work-in-progress and/or variations of one track): Allow, Arisen My Senses, Blissing Me, Body Manners, Body Memory, Courtship, Features Creatures, Future Forever, The Gate, Loss, Utopia.

"Features Creatures" is Bjork singing over this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FQ2DAEh1Mw

(This is not a joke.)

Apparently the album flows in four distinct movements and features birdsong, flutes, harps, choirs, woodwinds etc. Overall a pretty light/airy feel but there's also a track with Rabit ("Loss"), so expect darker elements as well. Arca is not only the co-producer but also the co-writer on many songs.

A tour with a 12-piece flute ensemble is planned (first announced date: London's All Points East Festival in May). Björk said she might play flute on stage.

Well then ...

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/23116701_10155827244516460_8675642920107884561_o.jpg?oh=0910a185ef6b408da4bd48a50182846f&oe=5A6B6563

https://www.facebook.com/bjork/posts/10155827276611460

kudos for trying something new

If this doesn't end up my new least favorite Bjork LP, I'll eat my copy of Volta.

Recently finished writing a review which includes the phrase "cross-species cephalopod Shaman for the chthulucene" so feel pretty damn vindicatd now fyi fuiud.

http://images.45cat.com/eddie-kendricks-goin-up-in-smoke-motown-2.jpg

welp I should definitely not have loaded this thread at work

Björk’s New Album Is a Love Letter to Optimism

New single, "Blissing Me":

https://open.spotify.com/track/18pZmxEPXqJgEa67WQpGRz

Surprisingly simple and kind of catchy, very tender vocal delivery, pretty much just a harp and a kick, slightly similar vibes to the more stripped-down stuff from Vespertine and the Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack. Probably also echoes of "Batabid" and "Virus". Very different to "The Gate", I like it.

I far prefer this!

really love this song! sounds like being an a sea voyage or something. the percussion makes me think of a creaky ship

Yes, more harp please!

Gorgeous song. Really looking forward to this album now.

Happy to have the skepticism that I felt following the release of the first track melt away.

Yes this is gorgeous.

So this album really is something, huh? Quite overwhelming after two first listens. For sure her longest, but perhaps also weirdest and least immediate yet? Medúlla and Biophilia seem now like merely a prelude to her idiosyncracies blossoming in full on Utopia.

The woodwind arrangements are gorgeous; she's really developed as a composer and arranger over the years. Perhaps that's how the record should be seen? As a non-narrative piece of modern classical / folk / electronic fusion, rather than an album in the singer-songwriter sense?

Petridis isn't wholly convinced

I don’t like it much. She needs to stop hanging around with Arca, his style is very bloated and every song in here is just nothing. Cool arrangements here and there but where are the actual songs? I struggle to remember any of them.

"Actual songs" hasn't really been her thing since, what, Vespertine? There's still been a lot of memorable music since then.

"Actual songs" hasn't really been her thing since, what, Vespertine?

Rong.

Vespertine, Medulla, Volta and even Biophilia were based around her and some actual compositions. It seems to me like Vulnicura and this one are more based around the arrangements... don’t know how else to explain it. Like if Arca shows up with some cool sounds and arrangements and just says ‘now sing on top of this’.

I do like it more than Vulnicura but that’s not saying much.

Vulnicura had some of her strongest songs in years (especially Stonemilker, Lionsong and Black Lake) and if anything the string arrangements were based around the vocal lines rather than vice-versa. And Bjork did most of the production on that record IIRC, Arca got involved relatively late in the day.

I actually shouldn’t voice my opinion on neither as I just can’t get into them and haven’t listened more than a couple of times. There’s not much pulling me in, sorry.

Stonemilker was her best song since Vespertine

I agree.

Hope you can find your way in Moka. If not then it's not for you, but it's a joy in there.

I promise to give both another chance in a couple of weeks.

the gate sounded like bjork TM
blissing me is great tho!

moka, i hear you with the anti-arca stuff and where that overwhelms her, I agree. But Stonemilker, Lionsong and Black Lake are still totally worth the trouble, signed a guy who was very angry at her MoMA show.

Every album after Vespertine has a few song-songs on it -- Medulla has "Triumph of the Heart," Biophilia has "Virus" -- but they're always in the minority. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, by any stretch. The only truly disappointing album in her entire catalogue to me is Volta, for its at least implicit regressiveness. And even that has "Wanderlust" and "Declare Independence."

I want to say that I can see Moka's difficulty with it. More so than Vulnicura, this album does feel like a somewhat 'meandering' record; the songs flow in and out of each-other. I've no idea of individual tracks on this one, most of the time, and just let it play (and repeat and repeat). It is no Homogenic, so to speak. But if you accept that, there are so many great phases and so many moments of beauty on here.

the first half of 'the gate' is kinda astonishing

It seems difficult / pointless to me to divide her career into songs and not-so-songs and non-songs. And I'd say that Vespertine was already resolutely turned towards the trajectory she's been following (how many songs do you count there ?). And if I'm told "songs", I think of different ones for her latest albums.
On Medulla: Vokuro, Who is it, Desired Constellation, Oceania, Mouth's cradle, Triumph too. (and if I was provocative, I'd add Ancestors)
On Volta: Earth Intruders, all from Innocence to Hope (hardly care for Declare)
On Biophilia: Crystalline, Moon and Solstice, Mutual Core I guess (only one of her albums I like distinctly less)
On Vulnicura: Stone Milket, Lionsong, Not get, Atom Dance
I think it shows there's no decisive way to conclude what has the right to count as a proper Björk song.
Can't wait to hear the new album. I just have to figure out where it was sent.

I'd say that Vespertine was already resolutely turned towards the trajectory she's been following (how many songs do you count there ?)

Excepting "Frosti" and maybe "Harm of Will" ... all of them.

Alright. What I meant is that I already hear something abstract and free-flowing in Vespertine, which already slows things down and leaves the beats behind. Later Björk just began experimenting with other instruments: choirs / beatboxing, brass, strings, now wind instruments. I'm always surprised to see each time so many people suggest she should restrict herself, maybe it's the same people than in 2004, maybe it's the same people for all artists :) Well, Vulnicura was well-received, but I'm not sure it was for the right reasons. I don't know, maybe I'm paranoid, but I feel it's crazy that Björk has stayed divisive as she has matured.

I have an opinion of course

I've thought a lot about "Bjork as a songwriter" vs. "Bjork as a composer"

I myself believe that with Vespertine-and-onward she sought to get away from the "pop song" format entirely, and work at carving out a music-language that was unique and unattached to the influence of her previous collaborators.

On her albums from Vespertine-and-onward, there are excellent "normal-ass pop songs ("Cocoon", "Triumph Of A Heart", "Who Is It") but they become fewer and fewer and weaker and weaker. By "Volta" and "Biophilia" all the poppy songs are kind of crap? "Earth Intruders"? "Cosmogony"?

On her albums from Vespertine-and-onward, however, her more abstract arty things start to shine more and more. The art-song afterthought of "You've Been Flirting Again" becomes a feature in "An Echo, A Stain", and by the time "Biophilia" comes around, the entire album is just artsy-fartsy gorgeousness.

My point is: I too miss Bjork-of-the-90s. I was frustrated with her transitional phase through the 00s. But with Biophilia and Vulnicura I feel like we're seeing a triumph of this gestative process-- I think of her work now as being in the same vein as Dagmar Kraus and Scott Walker, and try not to let my "Isobel"-hangover continue to inhibit my appreciation for the musiclanguage she's developed and recently perfected.

Haven't heard this new one yet though

When I say "normal ass pop songs" I hope one realizes I'm not talking about the production but rather the content of the melody/chords/lyrics. "Who Is It" might be a crazy production but I could still render it on piano in a cocktail-lounge format. "Dark Matter" not so much

I agree

I am listening to bjork's new album utopia right now, it is quality bjork music

There was some interview, can't remember if it was with Arca or Bjork, where it came up that Arca really loves the Drawing Restraint 9 tracks like 'Ambergris March' and was encouraging her to explore that sound more. You can really hear that on some of the new tracks.

FGTI, completely agree. The Kraus/Walker stage of career is a good metaphor.

"Who Is It" might be a crazy production but I could still render it on piano in a cocktail-lounge format.

Ok this obviously needs to happen.

Would pay $14.99USD to hear an album of fgti's piano lounge bjork covers

omg, just digging in but the first thing she did was sample one of my all time favorite crazy ass bird calls... the Montezuma Oropendola!
http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/127299

I will tell you that there was one drunken night five years ago that P4trick W0lf commandeered a piano at a nearly-empty gay bar and did some excellent Bjork renditions and changed the lyrics to include content about eating clouds and wanting to work with Dirty Projectors

But that feels like a lifetime ago

By "Volta" and "Biophilia" all the poppy songs are kind of crap? "Earth Intruders"? "Cosmogony"?

I wouldn't maybe go that far. I hear "Wanderlust" and "Virus" and "Stonemilker" as all conversant with her pop side. That said, I'm noticing now that they're all dirges. So maybe it's the slow jam side she's still able to suss successfully to my ears.

My point is: I too miss Bjork-of-the-90s. I was frustrated with her transitional phase through the 00s. But with Biophilia and Vulnicura I feel like we're seeing a triumph of this gestative process

I'm never not grateful that she continues doing what she wants and needs to do. Among my favorite artists, none of them have made fewer compromises, I trust.

Would pay $14.99USD to hear an album of fgti's piano lounge bjork covers

Double that.

I too haven't listened to the new one yet. I might hit up Electric Fetus tonight.

huh
http://www.vulture.com/2017/11/bjrk-says-her-lost-wu-tang-clan-collaboration-was-magic.html

arrangements/production on this album really scratch a sonic itch for me. Possibly it's banal to say at this point that her newer work has call-backs to earlier material, but the DNA of Vespertine is strong on this one, one example being the choir which is reminiscent of "Undo" on "Saint". Early impresions but love the scuttled percussive hits that coalesce into a legit banger on "Losss".

https://www.mixesdb.com/w/2017-11-16_-_Bj%C3%B6rk_-_Mixmag_Cover_Mix

more excited for a mix than a new album :(

Tabula Rasa is a beautiful track. Lyrical themes of not wanting to pass baggage on to your children and undoing the fuck ups - A+

given this about six spins and i think i'm not into it. feels like a nice gelatinous mass of bjorkishness without much in the way of definition. Would be perfectly happy to have it on in the background but not really excited about playing it anymore.

"gate" is kate bush level

Still digesting this but I don't think releasing 'The Gate' as a single was a great choice, it's sort of grating in its repetition of those vocal lines. The last few tracks on the record are gorgeous. I like the recurring bird call samples too.

ha xp

i was going to argue that 'the gate' is a brilliant song but agree that it's a terrible choice for a single.

but...what is a "single" these days, to someone like Bjork, for an album like this? is the goal to actually get on the radio and get a fluke #1 hit (so in that case, you'd want a single that's really catchy)? maybe it wouldn't be a fluke hit? i have no idea if new bjork songs chart anywhere around the world these days.

is it to kind of serve as a showcase piece for the album to people who are interested enough to maybe check out a single song posted on a website/blog somewhere before making the commitment of hitting the play button on spotify for the entire album?

or is a Bjork single, for an album like this that is more of a singular flowing piece than a collection of hits, aimed more at the committed fan, as a representation of the spirit of the rest of the album? it's only this case that supports "the gate" as a single, at least if you like it (it gives me the chills!), because it's a total failure if it's aimed at radio airplay or even a casual fan. the second minute, where it gets really quiet and those eerie synth-brass-bird lines rain down, along with the feedback, and "my healed chest wound/transformed into a gate"... is beautiful but ultimately not attention-grabbing for the music fan furiously clicking around tabs looking for a fix.

i'm just kind of rambling, sorry. i guess i'm just trying to say i don't even understand the purpose of ANY single for an artist like this (already well established with a huge fanbase) and an album like this (not singles-oriented). i get that the record company has to have something to push, along with a video.

AFAICT, she hasn't had a top 10 hit anywhere in the world since Homogenic.

is it to kind of serve as a showcase piece for the album to people who are interested enough to maybe check out a single song posted on a website/blog somewhere before making the commitment of hitting the play button on spotify for the entire album?

This is exactly the sense that I meant, admittedly because I played it at home before the album came out and got a 'can we turn this off?' from my partner, but when I later played the album starting with track #4 it was more like 'this is much better than whatever you played last weekend'.

I think *for Björk* the 'single' is indeed a showcase. Not just for the album, but for her new look, presence, the story she wants to tell, what she wants to convey. She's perfected doing this throughout the years (whether you're a fan or not).

Her singles dvd (needs updating) shows a magnificent evolution in how her approach of "the single" and "the video" changed. And of course she was ahead of the pack. I'd argue the death of music television as we knew it (mtv playing music videos) liberated her. No longer you "had" to have a video (because you "had" to have a single). Rather, a "single" doesn't have to be the song execs think has the biggest hit potential, but rather it can be a showcase, or a presentation, or a fashion statement, or a statement of intent, or everything rolled into one.

For this I think 'The Gate', both the "single" and video, is a beautiful thing.

Yet I deal with the same sort of partner Jordan deals with :) Still trying to decide which track on the new one is best to trick her into saying "this is much better". Perhaps I will try 4 the next time.

i like this album but as with any Bjork album since Volta, I play it a few times and will inevitably never put it on again

finally hearing this album. looooove it! "Arisen My Senses" is so nice and crunchy. really love this arrangement. the harp and detuned string samples over that glitching explosion. so sick! i like the skittering drums, i like drums that click like a ticking bike gear (Cornelius uses this trick a lot, the drum hit being delayed and that delay getting shorter and shorter exponentially, so that hits naturally yet mechanically become a drum roll).

i like "Utopia" a lot, it makes me think of gamelan music played with flutes. this really sounds like rainforest music, this album.

"Body Memory" this is some serious primal cave person sex music. it is like having sex on mushrooms. zooming into the atomic, cellular rhythms, the pulse of the universe, that god shaped hole.

So many lovely moments on 'Utopia'. . . but I don't know if moments sustain it for 70 minutes. I don't think anyone pining for Bjork "songs" is dismissing her more compositional, erudite, playful, non-pop tendencies. I think we just loved how wonderfully she married those tendencies to melodies and song-form where both aspects reinforced the others. For me, after the all-time perfect 10 top-5 records of 'Homogenic,' 'Medulla' is my second favorite--and it's an album dismissed as an experimental gimmick ("all vocals") but that was really her last great collection of songs and melodies.

She seems disinterested enough in melody (rather, just sort of Bjork-note phrasings) and song-form on this newest record that I almost just wish she'd make a full-on experimental, instrumental record along the lines of 'Drawing Restraint' but with her full talents behind it. It makes me sad that someone whose voice has moved me so over so many years, becomes just another piece in a rather busy but too-even mesh. I want to love it--but I agree with Fridgo above: I loved that mix she did instantly, but 'Utopia' I'm afraid will never grow into love for me.

She's still probably my single favorite living musician, so I'll follow her and give everything she does a chance.

This version of "Anchor Song," around 2:35, has literally given me goosebumps hundreds of times. . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgiI2gm-RIs

i love "Features Creatures" it sounds like Bjork playing a sampling keyboard while singing this awesome song and then clanging a bunch of chimes while messing w echo pedals and the whole time she can still sing amazingly <3 and is this a mellotron going on at the end w the minimalist fumbling note flurry? really lovely lofi playing there. this is so fun to listen to! <3

"Losss" is one of the best song titles ever.

the song is pretty cool too (Pink Floyd could have played this on "Ummagumma"). is this more mellotron in here? or real flutes?

really loved this album. it feels very healing. very warm. there is a lot of singing and vocals on here, maybe more than since "Medulla" the album that was nothing but vocals. but not just vocals, there are lots of flutes, lots of wind instruments. lots of breath and life. her voice is still really good and sounds as great as did it 25 years ago.

i don't pine for the pop songs of old, she has already done "Big Time Sensuality", she has already done "Hyperballad". that was decades ago. i really love just hearing her sing and play and layer her vocals and whatever sounds that she finds interesting and/or generates with her collaborators.

if i want to hear "Human Behavior" that song and MTV music video will always exist. the music video with the Ren and Stimpy guy will always exist. there is no need for her to try and recapture that pop audience because it is entirely differently from how things were in the 90s.

also it is probably the last thing in the world on her mind for her personally irt her career. i think she enjoys working w the various musicians and doing VR things and art stuff and that is what brings her happiness, not some gold record. thankfully even thought it is 2017 i can't picture Bjork doing American Idol or being featured on a Justin Beiber or Maroon 5 song (Lady Gaga and Bjork collab would probably be super fucking lit tho). she is still doing her thing and it's beautiful. her voice is still amazing and 100% can hit some high notes.

this was a wonderful record to live inside of. it was like being in a healing waterfall located in some laser jungle with holographic insects. it fits the album cover perfectly!

i love that bjork always represents her truth on every album. her concerns in life are obviously not the same as when she did her earlier pop hits, and this album really hits on her fears and hopes as a mother, reconciliation of longtime love lost and the joy of a new relationship. I love it as a flipside to Vulnicura.

great posts Adam btw

It's a dumb little thing but she does all her own arrangements these days and they are inspired

I really love the album, too. Initially I wasn't super impressed by "The Gate" - I like it in the context of the album, makes total sense now, but as a lead single it didn't pack enough oomph for me, I guess (even on her later-period albums the lead singles were pretty cachy e.g. "Earth Intruders" or "Crystalline", so I suppose I was expecting something like that?). "Arisen", "Body Memory" and "Loss" are currently my favourites.

Her flute arrangements are fantastic and really showcase her growth as a composer/arranger over the year. fgti is right, she's been doing her own arrangements totally on her own starting with Medúlla - choirs, strings, brass, now woodwinds. I'm pretty sure last time she had outside help was Vince Mendoza orchestrating some stuff on Vespertine

BTW "Features Creatures" is her singing over Sarah Hopkins' track that she found on some compilation of musicians who create their own instruments.

Joining the 'pro' lobby for this LP. And puzzled by the "where are the songs?" complaints when "Saint" exists.

i love the arrangements here! this is a very warm record, lots of acoustic sounds, flutes, layrered vocals. still the cool crunchy industrial electronic beats and stuff. she has always loved the industrial esp. "Army of Me" and of course her NIN tattoo.

i really think that breath or wind is a strong element for thing record (Bjork of The Wild). it feels really alive because of that. also it makes me want to go to Iceland so bad and see the lush volcanic super active natural beauty of it all. very refreshing!

Tried a handful of times to listen to this since it came out and kept getting distracted/bored. Today for the first time I played it all the way through. I begrudge Bjork absolutely nothing, but I'm just not stimulated by this one. Not feeling any desire to try it again.

kind of agree w/others that i think that her voice is always so compelling and she has a great ear for sounds and arrangements but doesn't feel like there's a lot "there" underneath it in terms of songs

Still pretty good! But six tracks does me just fine.

I haven't listened to this yet but I wonder if the comments about there not being any songs there are tied to her increased tendency to write songs that have overaching structure in terms of verse/chorus/what have you but melodically wander all over the place within those sections. This has been a hallmark of her style since the beginning but it's felt to me that it's become even more pronounced over the past (looks up Medulla's release date) 13 years; it's certainly what kept me from getting into Biophilia for a very long time.

It seems pretty clear that pop songwriting is not the game she's playing on her last few albums. But since her voice is her main instrument and there are lyrics, the format is uncomfortably similar to, y'know', "songs". But maybe it's better to think of these as electronic tracks with a voice singing words in the lead?

ha xp

hi-5

I mean, I guess the only reason we keep bringing this up is because she has things like "Hyperballad" and "Come To Me" in her past.

btw I'm playing this now and I like "Arisen My Senses" more than anything else I've heard post-Medulla

Tried a handful of times to listen to this since it came out and kept getting distracted/bored. Today for the first time I played it all the way through. I begrudge Bjork absolutely nothing, but I'm just not stimulated by this one. Not feeling any desire to try it again.

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, December 1, 2017

my reaction too, as I finish my fourth play

If I accept this as the second half of a Nu AmErykah style diptych with Vulnicura, I am 100 percent on board.

what if I give you a salted peanut

i'm certainly not saying she has to write like 3.5 minute v/c/v/c/bridge/c type songs or anything, not at all

songs can be whatever if they grab and keep my attention i guess

i like the way it sounds tho, it's def possible it will grow on me

I think it's going to be best dipping in for a couple tracks at a time, not as a complete listen (it's extremely cohesive, but just...a lot).

I skipped Vulnicura because of how hard it was for me to get into Biophilia; I am probably going to go back to it as these first two songs are glorious and reminding me why I was obsessed with her in the 90s.

i like Utopia a lot, and i enjoy her more abstract melodies and structures.

i have to admit, though, that after listening to Utopia yesterday, spotify "radio" kicked in and played "Unison" off of Vespertine and it felt like such a euphoric lift when the slightly more conventional structure kicked in with the beat. the bjork albums of the last several years sometimes hint at the possibility of tapping into pop structures, but always seems to turn away before getting too close. i do miss it, on occasion.

i'm certainly not saying she has to write like 3.5 minute v/c/v/c/bridge/c type songs or anything, not at all

My point/observation is more that she's staying pretty close to that type of structure on a macro level but has a adopted a wandering anything-goes approach within those sections, with usually the chorus as the only piece that retains repeated structure in her melody line. This threw up a big barrier for me on Biophilia that I literally only just got through this past year; am finding the musical arrangement on Utopia a lot more engaging overall.

If you managed to get into Biophilia I'd say you will definitely get into Vulnicura.

I get the idea that Bjork is not really going for "songs" in the typical sense. But then again why is everything mostly 3-5 minutes long? Like it's still all presented in a typical album-full-of-songs package. If her real intention is to make some kind of big overarching experience I'd like to see her go all the way and make something that really breaks away from expectations.

Originally gave it a grudging duty listen, the last three having mostly left me cold, and I keep coming back to it, and getting into it more. What a pleasant surprise.

don't know whether i LOVE it yet or not, but i'm pleasantly tickled by how the arrangements on here seem to refer back to "fourth world musics" tropes. it feels like a nice complement to the visible cloaks album from early this year.

cover art for this album is horrendous

the first two tracks on this are decent but then it quickly loses me - 75 minutes of Bjork at her densest and most abstract is far too much for me

Vespertine is still my favourite album of hers for the way it successfully bridges her 'pop' side with her then-new more abstract side, especially in the second half.

Wow, this serpentwithfeet remix of 'Blissing Me' adds an amazing hook. Would love to hear a longer collab between them.

A couple days ago i listened to this big folder of every bjork b-side up through Vespertine and my god was that a good time

i have folder envy

cool bjork mash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2HByXNKBwY

Recruiting: POLL Neon Like -- ILM artist poll #88 -- BJÖRK (voting open until April 27, 2018)

This album is very good

The tour for Utopia started last night in Reykjavik, BTW, with the stage set up as a rotating floral vaginal court (of course), lined plants, with footage of birds projected on the screens, and Björk being backed by seven dancing flautists, a drummer, an electronic person doubling as a trombone player, and a harpist. Theatrical as expected! The show is scheduled to tour for the next two years, so here's hoping I manage to catch it somewhere.

https://i.imgur.com/rPTMQe2.jpg

going to see her at primavera and this is what I wanted to hear

looks like her older set list tracks this time around are “Thunderbolt”, “Pleasure is all Mine”, “Notget”, and “The Anchor Song”

Is zeena parkins the harpist?

^ It's Katie Buckley this time:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhfIYMfnUGX/
(She also plays harp on the album.)

She was on Jools tonight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W60dqZCEpiY

o_0

Lucrecia Martel to direct new @bjork show in #newYorkCity @TheShedNY #argentina #theshowofthecentury https://t.co/EFKpRy3fgg pic.twitter.com/np5LT2Ti4x

— Cinema Tropical (@CinemaTropical) February 5, 2019

She has just put out a video for Tabula Rasa and it's just astounding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYbZw04ba78

The staging of Utopia/Cornucopia at NYC's The Shed looks incredible.

https://www.bjork.fr/IMG/jpg/09-05-2019-bjork-cornucopia-the-shed-ny_20_.jpg
https://www.bjork.fr/IMG/jpg/09-05-2019-bjork-cornucopia-the-shed-ny_12_.jpg
https://www.bjork.fr/IMG/jpg/09-05-2019-bjork-cornucopia-the-shed-ny_32.jpg
https://www.bjork.fr/IMG/jpg/12-05-2019-bjork-cornucopia-the-shed-ny_17_.jpg
https://www.bjork.fr/IMG/jpg/12-05-2019-bjork-cornucopia-the-shed-ny_9_.jpg
https://www.bjork.fr/IMG/jpg/12-05-2019-bjork-cornucopia-the-shed-ny_16_.jpg

Setlist:

01 The Gate
02 Utopia
03 Show Me Forgiveness
04 Arisen My Senses
05 Venus as a Boy
06 Claimstaker
07 Isobel
08 Blissing Me

09 Body Memory
10 Hidden Place
11 Mouth's Cradle
12 Features Creatures
13 Courtship
14 Pagan Poetry
15 Loss
16 Sue Me
17 Tabula Rasa

18 Future Forever
19 Notget

tickets starting at $300

I repent. Courtship is a banger and Future Forever is one of her most gorgeous songs.

This is really good! Turns out the vocal really shines with production that's a little more inside-the-lines.

https://youtu.be/AEdsAQ3GzFk

The Knife one is amazing too, but more for the music than for elevating the song imo

https://youtu.be/3Ghjaf_V6xw

Last night Björk performed the first of her 'Björk Orkestral' acoustic live streaming shows from Reykjavík - the theme was strings (the other three are choir/organ, brass/flutes/harp, and chamber ensemble). It was very good, even though she seemed quite shy/nervous during the first half of the show.

https://i.imgur.com/4g4kikO.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/R3mVNvm.jpg

The setlist:

01 Stonemilker
02 Aurora
03 I've Seen It All
04 Sun in My Mouth
05 You've Been Flirting Again
06 Isobel
07 Hyperballad
08 Harm of Will
09 Bachelorette
10 Unison

So no new songs but a new album is rumoured for late spring/early summer 2022 release.

'Björk Orkestral'

more like Björkestral imo

that looks amazing, and i would love to see any one of those 4 shows!

Should've included the link in my original post but you can get streaming access (if that's your thing) here: https://dice.fm/search?query=bjork

They're quite pricey though for a one-time streaming experience, and they're not available to re-watch; you have to view them at a set time. They're all supposed to be 10-song sets (+1 non-broadcast encore track for the people in attendance; last night it was "Generous Palmstroke") and you can read which albums each concert will be based on here: https://www.harpa.is/en/whats-on/event/bjork-orkestral-live-from-reykjavik

She's also been doing 'stories behind the songs' posts on her social media leading up to the gig, I hope she keeps it up for the future ones as well, some interesting tidbits.

Sorry for spamming this thread but the second orkestral show with Hamrahlíð choir and various keyboard instruments took place last weekend and it was pretty fantastic.

https://i.imgur.com/X14lIhl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/I0gGYP7.jpg

Setlist:

01 Show Me Forgiveness
02 Pleasure Is All Mine
03 Hidden Place
04 Cosmogony
05 Sonnets/Unrealities XI
06 Unravel
07 Vertebrae by Vertebrae
08 Oceania
09 Who Is It
10 Mouth's Cradle
11 Where Is the Line
12 Human Behaviour
13 New World

It's been great fun to watch her dig into her back catalogue thematically and I would love to see these shows get a proper release at some point.

Also, new album confirmed for release sometime next year, apparently made "for people clubbing in their living rooms" during lockdowns lol.

iirc indication has been the album will be out in may or so, it was mentioned in the announcement of an exhibition she's doing at a french museum

I love how she’s splitting these. Iirc correctly she did something similar for family tree but nowhere as ambitious. It was split into beats and strings.

Night 3 - flutes, brass, and harp!

https://i.imgur.com/RTLtymc.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Gevk6FA.jpg

01 Tabula Rasa
02 Utopia
03 The Gate
04 Courtship
05 Pagan Poetry
06 Losss
07 Sue Me
08 Generous Palmstroke
09 Aeroplane
10 Wanderlust
11 Mutual Core
12 The Anchor Song

I go through stages of spamming Bachelorette and Hyperballad, the jools holland performances, just gorgeous.

Fourth and final streamed show of the Reykjavík residency took place last night. The theme was 'drama', with Björk backed only by a 15-piece chamber string ensemble.

https://i.imgur.com/bTEG3fG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/HDF5Lak.jpg

The setlist:

01 Jóga
02 Come to Me
03 Hunter
04 Lionsong
05 History of Touches
06 Black Lake
07 Mouth Mantra
08 Quicksand
09 5 Years
10 Pluto
11 Notget

And that's a wrap on these retrospective performances, looking forward to the new album in 2022.

Looking forward to the release of these performances on limited edition colored vinyl for $79.95 a pop.

amazing setlist on that last one, omg

"come to me" was my #1 on the bjork poll <3

Yeah this one and the first one are my favorite ones.

Surely all of these shows were professionally recorded and she'll release them as a box set or something? Sounded amazing, but was never able to "attend" digitally...

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/19/i-got-really-grounded-and-loved-it-how-grief-going-home-and-gabber-built-bjorks-new-album

new album fossora out in the northern hemisphere autumn, based around gabber beats (!) and bass clarinet & featuring production from indonesian duo gabber modus operandi

idk why but this is giving me flashbacks to Volta, which sounded like a dream on paper and I even loved it at the time, gave it a glowing review in the local alt-weekly etc but has not aged well at all

'bjork gabber album' sounds incredible on paper but i'm expecting it will be fairly dense & impenetrable like most of her post-vespertine output & i have no idea how any of the ideas are going to fit together

Can't wait to be challenged yet again

She gives me a visual description of Fossora. If Utopia was a magical retreat from the black lake of misery she plunged into on Vulnicura (“pull all the teeth out, no violence – like a pacifist, idealistic album with flutes and synths and birds”), then Fossora shows life in this dreamland. “Let’s see what it’s like when you walk into this fantasy and, you know, have a lunch and farrrrt” – another gleefully rolled R – “and do normal things, like meet your friends.”

'Bjork Gabber album' sounds great but we know from experience that means 2 - 3 tracks at most.

I'll be disappointed if there are only 2 or 3 fart songs on this.

She also described it as her "mushroom album" and indicated it will feature "flutes and synths and birds" so it could sound like anything since Vulnicura really (also sextet of bass clarinets boxing like Public Enemy, she certainly has a way with words and marketing).
I haven't returned to Utopia at all, so it must the occasion to catch up on Björk.

^ The "flutes and synths and birds" part actually referred to the sound of Utopia. This one is apparently all earthy, grounded, organic clarinets.

I'm moderately excited -- unlike some commenters online I have no delusions that it will be more of a pop/dance record than anything she released in the past decade (the gabber-influenced elements are apparently mostly outros of a bunch of songs -- so I guess think "Crystalline" and the d&b outro? -- and the Guardian piece even stresses the "resistance to easy melody" lol) but I find her latter-day albums fascinating to explore, even if I rarely return to them after that initial heavy immersion.

Also sad to read about her mom.

Sounds like a dark sound palette and maybe sparse arrangements. Dare I hope for tight songwriting? No.

lunch and a fart album... lol i can't wait

At her manager’s suggestion, she has been digging into the archives to make a podcast series about her discography; it is due in autumn.

looking forward to this

expect I'll like the podcast more than the new album but excited to hear both

knowing Bjork and her penchant for.... enterprise, the podcast will be a paid subscription thing

First single "Atopos" out soon, she did not disappoint and went full drag for the cover:

https://i.imgur.com/lD46ezl.jpg

there were listings giving the release date as september 30 but they've since been updated to november 25

one of the members of gabber modus operandi has recently been accused of sexual misconduct though & is currently undergoing some legal mediation process in relation to that, so who knows what that will mean for this though

podcast: https://www.talkhouse.com/announcing-bjork-sonic-symbolism/

Is she juggling garlic and onion on that picture ? That's a little over atopos (sorry, couldn't do better).

Graffe growing vpon the dress of a bjork

dreff - dammit

El Guincho on the new album, that’s gonna be interesting I suppose

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch60RcftcDD/

it's out 30 september

tracklist:
Atopos
Ovule
Mycelia
Sorrowful Soil
Ancestress
Fagurt Er i Fjördum
Victimhood
Allow
Fungal City
Trölla-Gabba
Freefall
Fossora
Her mothers house

i guess the previous artwork is going to be the single cover?

Tracklist very much in the vein of the latest with maybe a hint of Medulla and a Kate Bush closer, I'd like to see the track lengths. Curious about what troll gabber sounds like.

El Guincho on the new album, that’s gonna be interesting I suppose

― Murgatroid, środa, 31 sierpnia 2022 15:01 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

He was on Biophilia too, but his contribution was just a few sub-bass beats here and there and I wouldn't recognise them as his if I didn't read about it, TBH.

The podcast is worth listening to! First three episodes are out, and it's nice to have her talk about each of her albums in depth from the present.

First single out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FD2mUonh5s

this sounds pretty much like i expected based on her descriptions but not in a good way, oh well

if you ignore the lyrics completely and imagine there's no clumsy percussion track, it's salvageable maybe

I just get angry when I hear something new by her now. the... random melodylessness of it all. meh.

seems like she's intent on continuing utopia's impenetrable tunelessness, very much not for me

What imago said, maybe. Totally into Bjork with reeds and brass and stuff myself, but that rhythm track is less than brilliant.

I still think that Utopia is at least 2/3 great, so slippery melodies are not necessarily a turnoff here. Just getting to end of a third listen as I type and it's sounding vaguely hooky anyway!

I haven’t heard a single note of Bjork since Medulla so I’m missing a lot of context but this new song absolutely rules in my opinion and will probably send me back to check out all of the in between

I actually don’t mind the rhythm track, it’s the Jon Brion Eternal Sunshine soundtrack-ass clarinet melody that’s taking me out

ugh

prob not a clarinet but my point remains

I kind of like it. Don't get the tunelessness criticisim, I've had the melody stuck in my head after just two listens. Excited to hear the rest of the album.

Yeah I'm into it, the thing I have mixed feelings about is the lyrics.

I'm liking it, but I'm hoping the album is nowhere near as long as Utopia.

xpost yeah I don’t mind the track at all but I hate the lyrics, I just have no patience with that “why can’t we all just get along?” messaging

Reminds me of Aksak Maboul in a strange way, which can be no bad thing.
Lyrics are best ignored on the whole so didn't listen to them.

unfortunately the lyrics are right there in the video, a bit hard to ignore on my first listen :/

agreed about the lyrics, sounds like a "we forced an AI to listen to 10,000 hours of Bjork" kinda thing

Third listen I'm really loving those reeds

listened to it off my phone this morning (i know) and now listening to it at work on headphones, somehow even worse on 2nd listen

I like the textures, and I like how easily Bjork moves through the terrain the arrangement creates. We just take it for granted because she's been singing over crazy shit for decades now.

I guess the last minute or so exemplifies the album's apparent gabber angle

I like all of the musical elements, and hard distorted beats + low woodwinds sound like a good idea (like hard distorted beats + strings on Homogenic), but this is probably going to be another Bjork album that I only listen to once. :(

annoying that I like this musically more than expected and then the lyrics are offensively dim

With video off, lyrics off, and amp in the red, it’s a beast. Visceral, and more tuneful than expected. (“expected” meaning Utopia.)

The combination of big drums and bass woodwinds is great, but it’s also very These New Puritans Hidden. Do I mind? Not at all!

I'm glad I listened to it first without the video.

New music aside, the podcast has definitely sent me into my annual Bjork phase. Finally I know who did which beats on Homogenic (answer: Markus Dravs did all the distorted "volcanic" beats, Mark Bell did all the 909 and dancier beats)!

feel like the Bjork alignment ever shifts and we’ve got more pronouncement-voiced yet churning european bits this time

Resident Advisor sez: 'Lyrically, "Atopos" is beautiful. Musically, it doesn't cohere as well as anything off of Vulnicura or Utopia.'

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Wasn't there once a theatre group who banged on bins and the like? But not in a good way.

I assume you mean STOMP

Or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystic_Knights_of_the_Oingo_Boingo

Vulnicura was magnificent, Utopia was mostly unlistenable, so I was hoping this would pivot back to Good Björk, but no... this is horrible.

Alsemanche e e

Vulnicura was magnificent, Utopia was mostly unlistenable

Agree with this but I kinda like the new song! I just wish it progressed a little more, it stays in one gear

Atopos is a little industrial-dancy and reminds me mostly of Volta (Earth Intruders / Wanderlust) and Vulnicura (scary emotionality), which are connections I like.
I hope there are some long songs. I am not expecting real "singles" from Björk anymore.

I really like it. Most exciting thing I've heard her do in years, and I quite liked the last one

I like how it starts as this sort of broken reggaeton track and ends in industrial dance mayhem

I'm also enjoying the section in the middle where it's just her singing over a deep subbass hum - makes me think of latter day Scott Walker

Shameless spam but I interviewed Björk, plus Siggi Sugarcube, Meredith Monk and Emilie Nicolas among others, for this month's Uncut, on sale next week...

https://✧✧✧.un✧✧✧.c✧.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Bjork-cover-with✧✧✧@1400x1✧✧✧.j✧✧

Link here! https://www.uncut.co.uk/publications/magazines/uncut-november-2022-140037/

^ Thanks! Is there a way to buy a digital issue for non-UK folks?

Yep - info here https://www.uncut.co.uk/digital-editions/

Ok “ovule” is way better.

Björk and Nick Knight reunited: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPr_D-b5v2Q

This could be on Medulla, somehow connects to her previous career, hooks are relatively simple and direct, I really like it although I feel like I have heard her do this song before.

The way she fuses with that groove towards the end

I love everything about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QRIgD1bAjI

yea I like this song a lot

this appears to be the podcast series where she talks about all her albums except without needing to subscribe to anything

https://mailchimp.com/presents/podcast/sonic-symbolism/post/

Working on a mix of Bjork's more minimalist, non-beat-oriented tracks from across her oeuvre, as a different lens through which to see her music. It's remarkable how in that mode, her work feels of a piece from the beginning.

Most of my favorite of Bjork's tracks generally are not so minimalist. But interestingly it's helping me rediscover some achingly beautiful gems from her post-'Medula' work, albums which have tended not to hit home for me as much as the first five (with 'Homogenic' probably my favorite album all-time by anyone).

Won't be able to publicly share it--Mixcloud doesn't allow single-artist mixes. But I'll post the tracklist when it's done.

Somewhat inspired by this piece she did on minimalism in 1997 for BBC (I think)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOoqLhNqXDw

none of the new tracks are doing anything for me at all, kinda bummed out about it

The 'Volta' podcast episode made it sound pretty good, gonna have to revisit that one.

I've listened to everything through Medulla countless times, and everything after only a few times each.

Volta is just perpetually sitting there, ready for re-evaluation

feeling strongly this is shaping up to be her best work since biophilia (though i may have the most skewed vision of the björk discography ever now that i'm reading that sentence back to myself)

I've liked all the new songs, each more than the last, and feel like each has clarified the previous ones a bit. Also the title track got instantly stuck in my head.

If nothing else, this seems like it'll be less impenetrable than the last album

feel like each has clarified the previous ones a bit

same, even Atopos which for the most part still feels almost like self parody.

there is something about the vocal delivery in all 3 tracks that i struggle to define, like intentional gaps between words, like it takes effort to push words out - and that works well for Ancestress but not for other tracks. it's almost like it makes listening a chore, and i donno, maybe that was the intent

yeah she's just doing a choppier version of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71hHly2AMeM

this isn't really my thing but it's better than i expected, all the dense dissonance actually kinda goes somewhere for once unlike a lot of post-vespertine bjork, & "ancestress" is lovely

a whole lot better than utopia at the very least

I’m also finding it better than expected. Works better without the videos and subtitles. And lots of sub-bass that I hadn’t heard on YouTube

One listen in and it still suffers somewhat from the melodic auto-Bjork tendencies, and the aversion to meter/excessive pausing in the lyrics/singing... But the production and conposition is more compelling and engaging than 'Volta,' 'Biophilia,' and 'Utopia' generally. Makes me want to listen again for sure, whereas 'Utopia' and 'Volta' in particular were always a slog.

Regardless, even when it's not my favorite work she's making, I love that Bjork stays so true to herself and what moves her.

Does it warrant its own thread?

probably yeah

I just listened to the whole thing. it's good, better than I remember her last 4-5 being, still frustrating in some specific ways

probably deserves a listen on good speakers with no distractions. clearly she puts a lot of thought into this. but I still just find myself wishing she would resolve things in a traditional major chord way like on, I dunno, "Isobel". just every once in a while.

Made a mix of some of her more minimalist tracks from 'Debut' through 'Fossora' and I have to say, I really enjoy hearing it as a suprisingly cohesive whole:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fd6SmjXXEAIEeCp?format=jpg&name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fd6Snk3WIAE7vPF?format=jpg&name=large

Bjork
'Animanda' (1993-2022)

00:00 Moon
05:33 Submarine
08:30 Pneumonia
13:35 Headphones
18:57 Features Creatures
23:41 Sonnets / Unrealities XI
25:37 Solstice
30:06 Vísur Vatnsenda-Rósu
34:22 Black Lake
44:30 The Anchor Song
48:03 Cetacea
51:11 Vökuró
54:22 You’ve Been Flirting Again
56:50 Future Forever
61:30 Dark Matter
64:47 Harm of Will
69:22 Oxygen
73:12 Her Mother’s House
77:41 All Is Full of Love
81:40 Komið

('Animanda' is my attempt at Bjorkian word-creation. From Latin 'Anima,' and Icelandic 'Anda,' both meaning "breath"/"breathe" and "spirit"/"lifeforce" as best I can tell.)

only in a discography like bjork's would "black lake" be considered minimalist haha

this looks great tho, will check out for sure

I listened to the first few tracks and my take is that contra the "avant-garde v. pop" narrative that has crystallized around her post-Vespertine career, I think she's stuck in a rut rather than too way out there: so many of the vocal melodies and musical arrangements sound familiar from previous albums

This is a total bag of wank.

think we’ve progressed to the point where certain ppl on ilm just can’t hear a new bjork record

anyway this is great, my reductive first impression is it’s sort of the combo of medulla and biophilia of my dreams

only in a discography like bjork's would "black lake" be considered minimalist haha

To be fair, I used the 'Vulnicura: Strings' version heh

i know it was a pre-release track but i didn't hear it until today: "ancestress" is stunning

“victimhood” insane

yeah that one is mind-bending

Going to take a few listens to fully digest. "Fungal City" was my favorite on first run through.

Also thought the closer was the prettiest song she's released in a decade+

This is my favorite album of hers in many a year. I like how her voice just rides atop these discordant background musics, doing its thing. And that last track is indeed a heart-tugger.

i feel like i'm listening to a different album than you guys; can't get with this at all.

Yeah it really did nothing for me either. Tried twice but nothing resonated. Clunky lyrics too.

It's not as consistent as Vulnicura, but there were several tracks I liked ("Sorrowful Soil", "Ancestress", many in the second half). "Her Mother's House", the closer with her daughter (who sings quite well!), is maybe my favorite song she's put out since Vespertine

i played this through four times! I still barely remember it except not liking it! it's somehow teflon to me.

First listen really positive, even if vocal parts > instrumental parts.

I think I need to wait six months and try it after the shine of the new is gone. I can't connect with it either but I can also feel myself in "analytic mode" when it's on. Hard to simply let it play without expectation.

Maybe, but Uptopia is still basically impenetrable to me.

I’m positive my not caring for her stuff since the wet noodle of a Timbaland collab has helped me embrace this new one. I only decided to listen again when a passing review compared some of the songwriting to Vespertine, my favorite of hers. Well, Fossora’s not *quite* reaching those heights but it’s a beauty.

I know I've said it probably 100 times, but Biophilia really really grew on me to the point I think it's her best post-Vespertine LP.

Yeah this might be my favorite thing of hers since Medulla. I strongly dislike what she did with Arca. Don’t like how their styles blend at all - although they have been the most interesting eras she’s had for fashion and visuals.

I know I've said it probably 100 times, but Biophilia really really grew on me to the point I think it's her best post-Vespertine LP.

― Eric H., Friday, October 7, 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Yes Biophelia was unfairly shat on at the time. Underrated.

xp to moka, i have been a big fan of one of her more recent influences/designers, isshehungry: https://www.instagram.com/isshehungry/

Medúlla was the first Björk album I mostly didn't like. I'm OK with about half of it.
I wrote this about the new one on my radio playlist last week:

I had a lot of trouble with the initial singles for Björk's new album Fossora. I've been a fan of hers since before Debut was even released, but there have always been aspects of her art that I find difficult: the melodies that can be exquisite but can also prod and prod until my head aches; the weird phrasing that deliberately accents the wrong parts of words and stretches melodies over single syllables; harmonies that reach for atonality in awkward ways (from a composer capable of glorious harmonisation); rhythms that, especially on this gabber-inspired release, hammer even at slower tempos without remorse. Even "Ancestress", the song on the album most directly about her late mother, which many have been powerfully moved by, I find quite painful listening, its verse melody strained by repetition and portentous pauses, and the the chorus, even as it recalls the beautiful "Unison" from her masterpiece Vespertine, still exhibiting so many of those foibles (the incredibly awkward scansion!). Perhaps it's because it's very operatic, and (I'm sorry) I hate opera.
In any case, it's still Björk and there is still beauty and genius here. The bizarre fungal references are all over "Mycelia", a lovely vocal vignette with increasingly glitched voice samples, and there, at the end, is the sublime "Her Mother's House", once again referencing Björk's late mother Hildur while featuring her daughter Ísadóra (Dóa). Here the wind ensemble provides a bed instead of parping like a school band, and around Björk's own vocal lines Dóa and an oboe weave glittering scale patterns. Anyway, this is one guy's musical opinions and it's all aesthetics, so don't be offended if you love it all. You're absolutely right, even if I'm not wrong. And Björk is a treasure, forevermore.

I sequenced up the mix of more minimalist/understated tracks referenced above as a YouTube playlist, since I can't upload the mixed version I made to Mixcloud. Should still work reasonably well:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fd6SmjXXEAIEeCp?format=jpg&name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fd6Snk3WIAE7vPF?format=jpg&name=large

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpQFmsMN6PqvJ6jEGv8jGEa_YRHtgRNr9

Still giving 'Fossora' time. Certainly more immediately accessible to me than 'Utopia,' at least.

Forks: yeah! Hungry’s work is brilliant.

wow album just gets better every time i go back to it

lol she's announced her first australia tour dates since the volta tour (but only playing perth) but she's not even touring the new album, she's bringing her cornucopia show from 2019? completely baffling

makes me feel better about not wanting to travel to see it because i have no interest in hearing her perform mostly just her worst album

^ did not realise until this post that I've seen every* headline show she has ever played in Sydney, so imo she should keep the streak going

*both

Lots of Bjork listening lately.

Mouth's Cradle is such a jam.

lol she's announced her first australia tour dates since the volta tour (but only playing perth) but she's not even touring the new album, she's bringing her cornucopia show from 2019? completely baffling

I think the Australia and Japan Cornucopia shows might be pre-COVID contractual obligations? Anyway, she said in a recent interview she would update the setlist and include stuff from Fossora, too (though I wouldn't count on anything more than "Allow").

Since 2015 her tours have been kind of overlapping anyway, I remember she was still playing Vulnicura shows when "The Gate" and "Blissing Me" were already out, and she's also obviously doing the Orkestral gigs (which don't feature material from Utopia or Fossora) here and there, as well as DJing.

the orkestral gigs are at least their own thing (that i'd be much sadder to miss)

& yeah good point that they're probably pre-covid arrangements that got delayed (since both western australia and japan were opened borders later than most). she almost certainly doesn't have a new show ready for fossora yet either (at least she's updating it) but it's just odd overall

utopia wasn't that long after vulnicura, relatively, so a few vulnicura shows happening while she was gearing up to release utopia wasn't that weird in comparison.

New album slowly inching it’s way to being one of my favorites of this year. Possibly her most moving album for me.

I finally was in the right headspace to listen to Fossora for the first time, and I'm much more in than I expected. Not a lot of pop hooks, but no one's expecting that from Bjork at this point, and I love the textures on the more calm tracks (Mycelia, Allow, and Her Mother's House for sure). 'Atopos' is probably my least favorite track, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Btw I made my own Soundslike-like 'Quiet Bjork' playlist if anyone wants -
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4kGcjsqUePEJ80w6hDK4uP?si=5813e34b33de4fa3

I cannot get over how starkly beautiful "Her Mother's House" is. Just a stunning arrangement -- how she interweaves the two vocal parts with the cor anglais, eventually uniting at the ~3:55 mark. Her discography has some gorgeous closers ("Unison," "All is Full of Love," "The Anchor Song," "Headphones") but this may be my favorite.

Bringing an acoustic/orchestral set to a huge open-air festival field filled with people waiting for Frank Ocean is gutsy but I'd say she pulled it off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whtd1wGfUoQ

Wow, was the whole set sans beats/drums?

Yes, just a string orchestra

Bold move indeed!

i love her so much

Daring! The strings-only version of "Pluto" is great

Noted that the conductor is free of headphones, this was all live live no click no tricks. Impressive. I find my ears and heart wanting to hear "a full orchestra" in this context but wonder if the rigidity of it being strings-only is what makes it so powerful

That is wonderful - thanks for posting

Supposedly Frank actually requested Bjork to be on the bill (and "open" for him)

would pay stupid money for a bjönk oceansdottir concert

There’s a million Björk threads

is this what you call sharing ? pic.twitter.com/A2ewPgmiK4

— björk (@bjork) November 3, 2023

lol @ the Israel War Room quote-tweeting her, what a bunch of freaks

ngl I like this more than her past few albums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jsi2Tgvx6A

(probably bc the song was apparently written 25 years ago?)

yeah this is the best thing she's done in forever

apparently it was 'too poppy' for vespertine and then she just forgot what it was called so she couldn't find the demo in her archives until she remembered this year

it's so odd to hear rosalia on this, someone else singing such an unmistakably bjork melody alongside her. not at all bad though!

Forever, or since Vulnicura maybe is good enough

But at this point, yes, I'll take a good dose of Bjork revisiting some vault items from circa late '90s/early '00s

"stonemilker" is the only real exception there. or "who is it" too if i were to more specifically say 'since vespertine'

oh wow her vocal is from the original pre-vespertine recording too. it sounds like the main thing that was newly recorded is the drums? (and rosalia's vocal of course)

love this so much. video is great too wow

Flutes and violin arrangements are probably new too - at least they sound more like Vulnicura/Utopia influenced arrangements than Homogenic.

Love this and the video

I’m a massive fan of Björk’s last three albums (and after finally seeing her live Cornucopia show last week I’m even more in love with her latter-day output than I thought I could be) but it’s so cool to hear this unearthed recording of her younger voice and more poppy/accessible style. I find it so nostalgic, brings me back to my teenage years.

Also weird to hear Rosalía sing in English lol! But I love it.

She also sings in english in single “LLYLM” released earlier this year.

Feel nostalgic and slightly sad hearing this great song, like a glimpse of a potential Bjork that pushed on in the direction of Vespertine. I do really like and admire some of the places she's gone over the years but never loved them like I loved Homogenic and Vespertine