Out now: 'Fossora' by Bjork

Björk releases her tenth studio album, and first in five years, fossora, via One Little Independent Records; stream / listen to the album here. fossora, a word created by Björk, is the feminised version of the Latin word for “digger,” and a reflection on roots, grounding, love, and family in the context of an underground mushroom world. The album is produced by Björk and recorded by Bergur Thorisson.

The new album finds Björk nesting at home in Iceland through the pandemic long enough to set down roots - both literally in her hometown Reykjavík and symbolically. While Björk’s last album, 2017’s critically acclaimed Utopia, was a city in the clouds, fossora is the sonic opposite: an earth-focused, natural eco-system of bass clarinets and punchy sub-bass.

“Each album always starts with a feeling that I try to shape into sound. This time around, the feeling was landing on the Earth and digging my feet into the ground (after my last album Utopia which was all island in the clouds, element, air and no bass). It was also woven into how I experienced the "now." This time around, 7 billion of us did it together, nesting in our homes quarantining, being long enough in one place that we shot down roots. 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). Sonically it is about bass, heavy bottom end. We have 6 bass clarinets and punchy sub,” says Bjork in a statement.

The album features contributions from Björk’s son Sindri, and daughter Ísadóra; clarinet sextet Murmuri; The Hamrahlíð Choir; Emilie Nicolas; Kasimyn of Gabber Modus Operandi; sideproject; El Guincho; many of Björk’s Icelandic acoustic musical collaborators; and bass clarinets, strings, trombones and more.

The album also deals with legacy, with two tracks paying tribute to her late mother, Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who died in 2018.

Track listing:

1. atopos
2. ovule
3. mycelia
4. sorrowful soil
5. ancestress
6. fagurt er í fjörðum
7. victimhood
8. allow
9. fungal city
10. trölla-gabba
11. freefall
12. fossora
13. her mother’s house