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..

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