Björk and Rosalía have debuted their first ever collaboration with the release of “Oral,” a triumphant new single that sheds light on the ethical and ethological crisis created by open-pen ocean salmon farming. Together they’ve created a characteristically ethereally ode to the intimate relationships and responsibilities we have toward the ecologies that surround us.
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With an icy clarity “Oral” opens with pair’s luminous vocals as they contemplate the liminal spaces that exist between reality and the imagination. Their words punctuated by the buoyant impact of drum machines before they’re sent soaring via a sublime swell of strings. “Let me introduce on to the other / the dream and the real,” Björk warbles. “Get them acquainted / just because she can.”
But as the track continues — becoming a rapturous web of crystalline tones and ecstatic cries — its lofty musings are interjected by pointed questions about the importance of self-imposed limitations. “There’s a line you can’t cross it/ just because you can,” the duo sing over and over, encased in the song’s melodic beauty.
The music video for “Oral,” from visual artist Carlota Guerrero with executive producer Zico Judge (Blur & ProdCo), manifests another dimension within which to view the song’s themes. Created using AI technology the film similarly muddles the lines between artifice and what’s real. One that depicts the pair’s avatars engaged in a momentuous and transfixing duel, full of dazzling choreography and graceful feminine rage, that’s made all the more energizing by the track’s otherworldly splendor.
The song was originally written by Björk nearly two decades ago between her 1997 album Homogenic and 2001’s Vespertine. Its rediscovery earlier this year coincided with the release of a report detailing the realities of the poorly regulated, Norwegian-owned commercial salmon farms in Iceland. A ceaseless activist who constantly uses her platform to address injustice — including voicing her support for Palestinian liberation — the avant-garde artist has taken to championing the ecological threat the industry represents for her home country.
These include the vile conditions that salmon are kept, penned off in waterways in exponetial numbers — from 2014 to to 2021 the country’s salmon production has increased by 40,000 tones. The unsustainable volume has led to genetic mutations in the fish, as well as rampant parasites and disease. The latter has created horrific mortality rates as high as 15 to 20 percent across the country. Last year alone saw the death of 58 million salmon in sea pens.
Arctic Fish — one of the companies operating in the country’s fjords — is currently under investigation by The Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority for violations. Their CEO Stein Ove Tveten has rebuked Björk’s vocal dissent against the negligent and cruel methods by which these farms operate. Yet earlier this summer his company was forced to admit a failure to prevent the escape of an unknown number of salmon into Iceland’s waterways, further endangering the country’s wild salmon population.
If convicted, Tveten and the rest of the board members could face up to two years in prison. All the income generated by “Oral” will be donated to AEGIS, a non-profit organisation taking legal action against open pen fish farming in Iceland. Those who wish to contriubte can do so here.
Words: Steven Ward
Visit Björk on her website and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Keep up with Rosalía on her website and Instagram.
Watch the music video for “Oral” (feat. Rosalía) the new single from Björk below!
