The Icelandic iconic pioneer returns with a 10th LP, mesmeric, strange, beautiful, sometimes challenging, but always original, inspired by fungi, the death of her mother, oodles of woodwind, rich vocal harmony and some Dutch techno. Wonderfully oddball harmonies and mixtures endure, with highlights including the gorgeous Mycelia, as well as next track Sorrowful Soil, knitted together with vocal harmonies to evoke the fine fungal threads that break down matter, and are inspired by role of mycorrhizal networks in resource-sharing fungi as well as trees. Fungal City later continues the theme. The album’s title, Fossora, Björk explains, is a feminisation of the Latin word for “burrower”, pertaining to any creature to digs below ground. An underground album, then, in many ways, with all sorts to explore in the life of the soil, such as the single Atopos, a meaning mighty opposites in a song about how such things may combine – clattering, hammering beats inspired by Dutch techno, also involving Indonesian experimental duo Gabber Modus Operandi – and clarinets, joining from disharmony into into an eventual frenetic unison. Ovule also mixes disparate elements – brass and beats and oddball rhythms, with a jazz sound inspired by the Cantina band in that famous alien scene in the original Star Wars movie. The life-cycle of things is also threaded with two songs dedicated to her mother, Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who died in 2018. Ancestress, capturing all her quirks and medical challenges (“her pulsating skin rebelling”), plus also closing track Her Mother’s House, also relating to the departure from home of Björk’s own daughter, 19, Ísadóra Bjarkadóttir Barney. Yet another album that challenges, but ultimately rewards as it grows in the imagination. Out on One Little Independent.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Feel free to recommend more new songs and albums and comment below. You can also use the contact page, or find more on social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube, and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share.
Song Bar is non-profit and is simply about sharing great music. We don’t do clickbait or advertisements. Please make any donation to help keep the Bar running: