The first single from Björk's tenth studio album, Fossora, is here!
Just last week, Björk announced that her new album was indeed on the way and would be out by the end of the month. Today, she has shared the utterly confounding lead single, "Atopos." There are deep rumbles, skittered electronics, bass clarinets, and throbbing percussion that all come out to play on this one and the innovative singer does her best to bring them together for a sound that could only come from her creative mind. She herself described it as "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." When she first began to talk about the album, she made reference to recording it during COVID lockdowns when everyone could rave in their own living rooms, a party for everyone even if celebrated alone, and that vibe comes across strongly as the song plays out, its dense, but full of movement, and has a certain kind of grounding feeling. She's described this as her mushroom album, one where she dug her heels into the ground to center herself and make the overall feeling of the album match that mindset. "Atopos" is as typically strange as you'd expect from Björk and the subdued feelings somehow still strike a groove, leaving more to the imagination. Volta-era percussion does re-emerge on this one, but the rest feels like the usual new territory she explores upon each release giving hope that more intrigue lies ahead. "If we don't grow outwards towards love / We'll implode inwards towards destruction" she tells us on the second verse, pushing us to remove obstacles and understand that our union is what connects us and that the connection is broken. "Hope is a muscle" she reveals towards the track's end and like other muscles, it is one that needs perhaps the most exercise post-pandemic to get us back to a mindset ready to digest such complex notions. Luckily, Björk's music can also feel patient, ready to grow alongside the listener and offer new findings and discovery with each listen. Hope is indeed a muscle and it's ready to be flexed. Ready to restore that connectivity that has left us all, pushing us towards isolation. Under her guise, we can rebuild that muscle and with it, restore hope and connection.
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