This first song is Oral by Bjork and Rosalia. There are so many elements to the story behind this song. Bjork wrote it over 20 years ago but put aside as it didn't fit in with her other material from that period. Over time she forgot the name and so couldn't find it in her archive. Then in March 2023, whilst on tour in Australia she remembered the name and found the song again. She asked Spanish singer Rosalia to sing guest vocals to her own vocal track from over 20 years ago, liking the similarity in the beat to that used in Rosalia's own music.
The story then takes an unexpected twist in that all profits are being donated towards fighting against intensive salmon farming in Iceland.
Then there's the video, using AI to generate deep fake versions of Bjork and Rosalia as martial arts experts, performing flips, jumps and fighting with swords.
To pair with this I've chosen another Bjork song from that time - Pagan Poetry from the 2001 album Vespertine. The story of the song goes that Bjork had been wanting to create a song using music boxes. You can see her setting them up at the start of the song with the main part being played by the harpist. This live version was recorded inside an intimate New York venue in the same year.
Vespertine is such a good album, any song from there would have worked well here.
