An artist who continues to exist on another creative plane entirely, Björk is consistent in pushing the envelope across almost every conceivable element, album after album. Fossora remains among her most joyful records of recent ties but also ranks among her most personal. Bringing her family – son Sindri and daughter Ísadóra – along for the ride, the project took shape amidst a pandemic return home, her mother’s passing, and Ísadóra leaving the nest.
Art pop’s most unpredictable auteur is back with her tenth studio work. Björk’s tenth bass-clarinet-featuring album draws from traditional Icelandic music to contemporary classical, reggaeton, and gabber club with collaborators El Guincho, Gabber Modus Operandi and serpentwithfeet. The title is made up by the artist and she says it “‘is the feminine of fossore ( digger, delver, ditcher ). so in short it means ‘she who digs’ ( into the ground).
It’s been her biggest gap between albums yet, so we’re very pleased to have a new Björk LP in our hands as she’s a firm favourite around these parts. Almost forty years into her wide-ranging musical career now and she’s showing no signs of slowing down in her remarkable creativity.
‘Fossora’ both pulls from and expands her past work with rich string orchestras, lush electronics, and hectic beats, whilst touching on new themes of parental loss, homecoming, belonging, and motherhood.
Björk explains how she decided to make mushrooms the spirit fungus animating her 10th album, Fossora,
“each album always starts with a feeling
that i try to shape into a sound
this time around the feeling was landing on the earth
and digging my feet into the ground
how i experience the “now” is also woven into how it is written
this time around 7 billion of us did it together
nesting in our homes quarantining
our mutual “now” is being so long in one place
that we shot deep roots down
my new album “fossora” is about that
it is a word i made up
it is the feminine of fossore ( digger, delver, ditcher.)
so in short it means “she who digs” ( into the ground )
therefore when i was describing the sound to the musicians on it ,
i would call it my mushroom album.”
Björk’s unconventional approach to sound has long been etched into the fabric of her music, but the idiosyncratic structure of ‘Ancestress’ serves as another way of honouring her mother. A devastatingly stirring epitaph, the song finds Björk wrestling with grief in terms both poetic and startingly human – and often both, like when she describes her mother’s dyslexia as the “ultimate free form.” As she stretches her voice and the accompanying instrumental over the course of seven minutes, the ballad juxtaposes sweeping strings with off-kilter percussion to offer a vivid portrait of their relationship, its echo reverberating in the harmonies provided by her son, Sindri Eldon. “Nature wrote this psalm/ It expands this realm,” she sings, gracefully ceasing control. In this act of unlocking memories and letting go, she suggests, we also end up seeing ourselves.
I am so immensely grateful to Pierpaolo Piccioli for designing and giving all of us the phenomenal Valentino costumes for this video . i enjoyed our talks and his understanding of mothers , their colour palette and agnostic spirituality , i thank him for his intelligent understanding and adding his beauty and talented craftsmanship to this short film .
At least three of the tracks – “Ancestress”, “Her Mother’s House” and “Atopos” rank among her best work, and she’s back on form vocally too, but the album’s biggest achievement lies in its balance – a perfect equilibrium of playfulness, accessible and thematic cohesion.
taken from new album ‘Fossora’ out 30th september
The Fat Angel Sings 