Bjork - 2017 album

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