Utopia saw Björk exploring new emotional terrain, providing a floaty, dream-like antidote to the bleakness that pervaded through Vulnicura. Björk rediscovered her playful side on Utopia, riffing wonderfully with her co-producer, Arca, creating something wholly unique. Utopia received critical acclaim, with Björk praised for her consistent reinvention. Once again, she was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 2019 Grammy Awards, her fifteenth nomination. She lost out to Beck’s Colors, continuing her rotten run at the Grammys (I do have a chip on my shoulder). After a relatively short period between Vulnicura and Utopia, Fossora provided the longest wait between albums.
Björk was typically busy between releases, first embarking on a relatively brief tour of Europe in the summer of 2018, including a performance at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. The Utopia tour served as a precursor for Björk’s most elaborate concert tour to date, Cornucopia. A theatrical, conceptual production directed by Argentine director Lucrecia Martel, based on the themes of Utopia. A typically ambitious project, Björk’s performances were backed by an Icelandic 50-person choir and a huge live band, with several specially bespoke instruments and even a reverb chamber on stage, creating a diffusive sound.
The music was supported by an array of impressive visuals, while the stage design resembled giant fungi- mushrooms going on to be a pertinent theme of Fossora. An expansive celebration of nature, Cornucopia is another example of Björk’s desire to expand the experience of the audience beyond her music, creating an immersive and imaginative experience. A sci-fi pop concert celebrating female-led vision, performances included a speech by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, which was projected on stage before the encore. Disrupted by the COVID pandemic, Cornucopia is still rumbling on today; currently, in Australia, it will spread across Europe in the summer.
Cornucopia was also interrupted by Björk Orchestral, a strings-only performance of Björk’s work to date. Disrupted by the pandemic, Björk performed four dates in Reykjavik in October 2021, driven by her desire to provide an opportunity for Icelandic musicians, many of whom had been starved of work during periods of restrictions. The concert proceeds went towards a local woman’s shelter, with all four performances streamed across the globe. Away from music, Björk made another brief foray into acting alongside her daughter, Ísadóra, appearing in Robert Eggers’ historical epic, The Northman, co-written by Björk’s friend and occasional collaborator Sjón.
Ísadóra would go on to feature in Fossora, as well as her brother Sindi, Indonesian dance duo Gabber Modus Operandi, and bass clarinet sextet Murmuri. Largely written during the pandemic, Fossora centres around themes of isolation, loss, and grief, partly influenced by the death of Björk’s mother in 2018. As mentioned earlier, mushrooms also play a key part in the album’s concept. Björk’s connection to the earth has often felt spiritual and transcendent, but Fossora has her plumbing nature’s depths (Fossora is the Latin word for dig). The meaning of mushrooms to Fossora is multi-faceted, celebrated for their bubbly, psychedelic energy and powers of decomposition and regeneration, nurturing new life.
Despite delving into weighty emotional territory, Fossora is not another Vulnicura, carrying messages of hope among the more tender and poignant moments. Bjork describes the record as her “Iceland album”, volatile and explosive but also bright and beautiful. She draws upon the country’s choral and folk traditions while the string sections were programmed at her local coffee shop. The pandemic saw Bjork return home, disillusioned by the violence in the US and Donald Trump ignoring the Paris climate agreement. It was a happy homecoming, and Fossora glistens with a comforting warmth. Musically it’s liberated, filled with explosive Gabber beats and the punchy sound of the bass clarinet throughout.
The opener, ‘Atopos’, typifies the record’s earthier sound; the angular beats and pounding sound of the bass clarinets make it feel as though Björk is trying to pummel down into the earth’s core. Inspired by Roland Barthes’ book A Lover’s Discourse, ‘Atopos’ explores the connectivity within a relationship, filled with advice, such as learning to accept “Our differences are irrelevant”. ‘Ovule’ is a more expansive, conceptual analysis of a relationship. Björk described it as imagining two spheres following you, representing ideal love and past love. She uses typically visceral, metaphorical imagery, like: “My skin mud dense by you” and the “glass egg” representing love- filled with glorious potential but fragile.
‘Sorrowful Soil’ and ‘Ancestress’ deal with grief and serve as tributes to Björk’s mother. The former, written before she died, serves as a eulogy, reflected in its sombre tone. It also displays some of Björk’s cutting humour, as she makes a telling point on how women are often reduced to their roles as creators: “In a woman’s lifetime/She gets four hundred eggs/But only two or three nests”. ‘Ancestress’ has a bright, almost oriental sound, filled with vibrant strings and airy chimes, and features Björk’s son on backing vocals. It serves as an epitaph, celebratory but mournful, as Björk sings of childhood memories, her admiration shining through. It’s one of Björk’s most touching tracks, with a particularly powerful moment where the instruments fade away as she devastatingly sings, “Revealed her resilience/And then it didn’t”, as her mum slips away.
Arguably, Fossora’s highlight is ‘Victimhood’, where Björk warns of the trap of womanhood: “Victimhood/Has a saintly glow”. It’s the album’s eeriest track, the bassy sound of the clarinets combining with the vibrato-like humming of the choir to create an ominous atmosphere. It builds to a powerful crescendo, the beats accelerating as Björk’s voice ascends, breaking out of the trap of victimhood. ‘Allow’ is something of an anomaly, initially written in mind for Utopia, with the floating sound of the flutes and its transcendent celebratory air.
The mushroom theme comes to the core on ‘Mycelia’ and the serpentwithfeet featuring ‘Fungal City’. The former is purely instrumental, with Björk using samples of her voice to create something suitably glitchy and trippy. The latter sees Björk enraptured in love, affirming its life-giving nature: “Trunks bursting through the moss from our love”. Revelling in sensual imagery, it has a wonderfully chaotic sound, the soaring strings reflecting mushrooms’ psychedelic energy, while the earthy sound of the clarinet embodies the growth of new life.
‘Fossora’ has Björk literally and metaphorically digging into the earth. The bright, almost medieval sound and the propelling industrial beats create the impression of something built, Björk digging into the past to distress “old pain” and lay down new roots. Change and growth are also explored in ‘Freefall’, where Björk caves to new affections but warns her new lover to move forward, you must let go: “If we cling to what we used to be/It will burn our soul”. The final track, ‘Her Mother’s House’, sees Björk singing in tandem with her daughter, Ísadóra. It provides a peaceful conclusion as Björk tries to quantify a mother’s love, caught between holding on and letting go.
Fossora concludes my wonderous journey through Björk’s discography. Björk’s talent is unparalleled, and she is arguably the most consistent artist of the last thirty years, constantly pushing the boundaries of music. I can only liken her constant reinvention to David Bowie; both willing to explore new territories sonically and create immersive experiences. Björk has a beautiful, idiosyncratic voice, but her talents go far beyond her vocal cords. As a lyricist, she has stunning emotional depth, able to drift between the direct and poetic (She could easily write poetry), while her skills as a producer and arranger are equally outstanding. Long may Björk continue to astound and entertain.