Björk on moving full-time to Iceland from the U.S.: "The violence was just too much"

"The violence in the USA is on a scale I can't even fathom," said Björk in a recent interview

By Savannah Olson  |  September 21, 2022 | 4:37pm
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Björk on moving full-time to Iceland from the U.S.:
Icelandic singer Björk Photo: Roger Kisby

While it’s difficult to imagine Icelandic singer Björk living anywhere but among the wild greenery of her home country, the musician has been a part-time New Yorker for the last decade or so. Recently, though, the island country has become her full-time home, exchanging the urban sprawl for Iceland’s volcanic landscapes. While speaking with Pitchfork about her upcoming album Fossora, Björk said the living changes were a result of the mass violence experienced in the U.S., especially during COVID-19.

“The violence in the USA is on a scale I can’t even fathom,” the singer-songwriter said during a discussion about police brutality and the rise of mass shootings in the country.

Mentioning the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting that killed 26 children and adults, Björk expressed concern for her daughter Ísadóra’s well-being as she went to a New York school “40 minutes away from Sandy Hook” during the incident.

“When we are here, I absorb all of Iceland,” voiced the Dancer In The Dark actor. “If one person is killed in the north, we all hurt. It’s an island mentality. In the States, just being a simple islander, all the violence was just too much for me,” added the singer.

As well as the mounting violence, Björk spoke about her feeling of hopelessness when the U.S. decided to leave the Paris Climate Accord in 2017. “It’s the only time something happened on the news where I actually just broke down and cried,” she said. “I was just ruined.”

All these feelings of trudging through a world but making it out seem to be part of the inspiration for upcoming album Fossora, which the electronic musician described as her “mushroom album.” The earthy LP will bloom with a fall release date via One Little Independent Records.

 
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