Ethereal Icelandic art-pop icon Bjork recently released the lead single from her forthcoming album, Fossora.
Videos by American Songwriter
Titled “Atopos,” the song is a kaleidoscope of airy vocals, sporadic clarinets, and punchy percussion, making for a strange and jarring combination of sparse and spacey sounds. Bjork took to Twitter to describe the single, calling “Atopos” a good intro to the album, like “Fossora‘s passport.”
“the video to the first single from my new album called “atopos” is coming tomorrow, it is a good intro… kinda like fossora’s passport. sonically a heavy bottom-ended bass world. we have 6 bass clarinets, punchy sub drilling, nesting, and digging us into the ground. warmth.”
“Atopos” was released in good company, followed by an equally interesting music video. The footage depicts an extraterrestrial party of clarinet players, a lone DJ, and a costumed Bjork. Taking place in a dark, cavernous underworld of funky fungi, the characters move in spooky unison to the song’s rigid, experimental techno arrangement.
Pursuing the light too hard is a form of hiding, Bjork sings to the dance-like rhythms of Indonesian duo Gabber Modus Operandi.
Bjork’s tenth album, Fossora, is set for release on Sept. 30. The singer coined the album’s sound as “biological techno” with lyrics that deal with her mother’s death and her daughter’s departure from the nest.
Her first album since the 2017 release Utopia, Björk described Fossora as a “mushroom album. It’s like digging a hole in the ground,” she told The Guardian. “This time around, I’m living with moles and really grounding myself.”
The singer recently launched a new podcast, Björk: Sonic Symbolism, on Sept. 1, in which she dives into the archive for a series about her discography.
Photo: Santiago Felipe / One Little Independent Records
