Björk Shares New Song ‘Ancestress,’ a Tribute to Her Late Mother

Björk shared another preview of her upcoming LP Fossora Thursday with “Ancestress,” a track inspired by the singer’s late mother, Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who died in 2018.

“On my new album, fossora, I wrote 2 songs to my mother. This one, ‘ancestress,’ is written just after her [worldly] funeral and is probably a common musician’s reaction, the impulse of making your version of the story, later,” Björk wrote on social media of the track.

“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.”

Björk paired the seven-minute song with a video directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, a visual that captures the singer’s vision of how funerals should be held.

“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,” Björk continued.

“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.”

The track also features contributions by Björk’s son Sindri Eldon, who arranged and sang vocals on “Ancestress.” “He has a delicious voice and was very close to her,” Björk wrote of her son’s relationship with his grandmother. 

Björk previously shared “Atapos” from Fossora, out Sept. 30.