Three best songs: “Atopos”, “Mycelia”, “Her Mother’s House” I’m lying on the floor in the living room, it’s Monday morning, it’s raining outside. I have put on Björk’s new album, “Fossora”. The music thunders out of the speakers and fills the air around me, slowly penetrating my tired Monday body. It’s a strange way to start the week. Quite intense. Facts about Björk Photo: Handout/NTB Icelandic singer, musician and composer Released her first album as an eleven-year-old in 1977 Had success in bands such as Kukl and The Sugarcubes in the 80s and 90s Then went solo and experienced great international success Received the Nordic Council music award in 1997 Played one of the main roles in Lars von Trier’s film “Dancer in the Dark” In 2006 won a BBC award for the world’s most eccentrically dressed person The invisible threads “Fossora” is a self-composed word, and according to the artist means “she who digs”. And that is significant. Here, key words such as earth, roots, femininity, sisterhood, community and connection apply, in contrast to her previous album “Utopia”, which was more euphoric and soaring. Björk has recently lost her mother (two of the songs, “Sorrowful Soil” and “Ancestress”, were written directly about/to her), in addition to her youngest daughter having moved out. All this is present in the music and lyrics. But if we zoom out a little more, all this is an expression of what binds us together, with the earth we live on, with the past and the future. And this is where the album’s profound metaphor comes in, which I immediately love: mycelium. COME BACK TO EACH OTHER: That is Björk’s plea to humanity in the first single “Atopos”. Thinking like mushrooms In fact, the song “Mycelia”, which only consists of vocals without lyrics, is one of my favorite songs. The word is also mentioned in several of the songs. Mycelium – for those who don’t know – is a term for the fungal world, these vast networks of microscopic threads, which bind much of nature together. These networks are absolutely essential, but they are hidden and easy to forget. GRAVER: The cover of Björk’s album, where she shows off a multitude of mushrooms. Photo: One Little Record Company For me, this double meaning becomes clear already on the album cover: a psychedelic and strange mixture of mushrooms and anatomy, an equation between our inner world and the outer world. Again, that we humans must nurture the connection with all that is. We must try to think like mycelium. Carried by clarinets, “Atopos” – the album’s lead single – joins this theme, and is a pressing and insistent plea to humanity to return to the earth and each other. A GOOD BLOW: Not all clarinets are dumb. Photo: Vidar Logi / Love Street Music The basis of the song is a driving beat that kind of itches a little under the skin, and a small ensemble of clarinets. These clarinets prove to be central. They dance a dynamic dance with Björk’s vocals throughout much of the record. They become our whimsical and whimsical companions, a kind of common thread. I’ve always thought that clarinets are a bit silly, for some reason, but they certainly aren’t here. They are deep, full, clean and strange, it is as if they carry Björk’s airy being and voice, giving everything more weight and solidity. Cutting through to the core It is a long and dynamic – and sometimes demanding – journey through the 13 songs on “Fossora”, where both Emilie Nicolas and serpentwithfeet poke their heads in, in addition to Björk’s daughter contributing as a lyricist on the last song. It is difficult to judge the whole in such a purely musical way, both because of a certain awe, and because these are fairly complex things. But this much I can say: There is something magical and theatrical about this work, something deep and dark, but also playful and mysterious. It is music that will cut through the upper layers of memory, that will penetrate to the core. In the end, Björk is sort of just Björk, she’s the epic sound artist that she is, and it feels as real as it gets. Whether you like it is another matter. Grows solid WHEEL AND BRAIDED: Björk has been around for a long time. This is how she allowed herself to be photographed in 1993, when she made her debut with “Debut”. “Fossora” is her tenth album. Photo: Kevin Cummins / Getty Images I’ll be honest, I haven’t listened to Björk in years. But she’s kind of been there all along, like a powerful and unshakable figure in the music world, year after year after year. For me, listening to her is a bit like wandering around an exhibition that I don’t immediately understand. Nevertheless, the longer I spend in there, the more the works creep into some small remote chambers of my mind, and there they slowly grow into something solid, something that wants something for me. All in all, this slightly demanding journey is absolutely worth taking part in. I recommend you lie down on the floor and listen to “Fossora”. Let the clarinets and mushroom strings lead you through a tunnel of strange music and see if you can feel it: the connection. news reviews Photo: Vidar Logi / Love Street Music Artist: BjörkTitle: “Fossora” Genre: Rock/popDate: 30 September 2022Record company: One Independent Record Company Track list: 1. Atopos2. Ovule3. Mycelium4. Sorrowful Soil5. Ancestry6. Fagurt Er í Fjörðum7. Victimhood8. Allow9. Fungal City10. Trölla-Gabba11. Freefall12. Fossora13. Here Mother’s House
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“Fossora” by Björk – Reviews and recommendations
