• News

• All

Sep 22, 2022 By Mark Redfern

Björk is releasing a new album, Fossora, on September 30 via One Little Independent. Now she has shared the album’s third single, “Ancestress,” a moving song about her late mother. It was shared via a video for the new song. Andrew Thomas Huang directed the video. Watch it below.

Björk had this to say about the song in a statement on Instagram:

“on my new album , fossora , i wrote 2 songs to my mother . this one , ancestress , is written just after her wordly funeral and is probably a common musician´s reaction ,
the impulse of making your version of the story , later .

this song is a letter to my mother , her story seen from my point of view
it is written in chronological order , the first verse is my childhood and so on
only recently did i discover that this song is probably somehow inspired by an icelandic song ‘grafskrift’

which is somehow a very direct and patriarchial account of someones life
i probably wanted to approach this in a more feminine way
her biological and emotional story
not her professions , partners or dates of birth and death

i am very grateful to my son , sindri eldon , to arrange and sing vocals for the verses
as he has a delicious voice and was very close to her .

for 20 years i have not been able to attend funerals as something in them rubbed me the wrong way .
possibly a big part of it is after having lived a life of thousand concerts , i probably have too strong ideas on how a ritual should be ,
what kinda sound , musical structure , words and it took me all this time to discover that for me all funerals should be outside .
probably what was offending me most was how can one set off the spirit in such a claustrophobic environment as a church ?
when the soul sets off , it needs to be outside so there is room for how enormous it becomes when it merges with the elements

warmth

björk”

Previously Björk shared the album’s cover art and tracklist. Then she shared the album’s first single, “Atopos,” via a weird and wonderful video for the new song. “Atopos” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then she shared the album’s second single, “Ovule,” via a majestic video.

In a previous Instagram statement alongside the album’s announcement, Björk wrote:

“each album always starts with a feeling
that I try to shape into sound
this time around
the feeling was landing
( after my last album Utopia which was all island in the clouds element air and no bass )
on the earth and digging my feet into the ground”

Björk also recently announced the release of a new podcast, entitled Björk: Sonic Symbolism, which will premiere on September 30 via Mailchimp Presents and Talkhouse.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.