Écrite par Björk dans les années 2000 et restée inédite, la chanson Oral a été retravaillée en 2023 en collaboration avec Rosalía et Sega Bodega. Les bénéfices de ce titre seront reversés à Aegis, l’association environnementale cofondée par Björk, visant à financer des actions juridiques pour réguler l’aquaculture en Islande.
Sorties
Streaming et vidéo clip : 21 novembre 2023 | https://bjork.lnk.to/oral
Vinyle en édition limitée : 29 novembre 2024 | https://bjork.lnk.to/oral-vinyl
From where did you draw inspiration for it ?
Love, I guess…Björk
Un titre oublié et recyclé
Björk a composé Oral, il y a plus de 20 ans, entre les albums Homogenic et Vespertine, mais à l’époque elle estime que le titre sonne trop « pop » pour être inclus et la version originale, enregistrée sur bandes analogiques, est finalement mise de côté.
Alors qu’elle est en tournée en Australie pour Cornucopia, la chanson se rappelle à elle via une actualité sur un scandale sexuel. À la télévision, elle remarque sur l’une des bandeaux, le mot « Oral ».
En novembre 2023, pendant la pause de la tournée Cornucopia, c’est donc une ancienne composition qui refait surface et cela dans un but caritatif : les bénéfices des ventes soutiendront les pêcheurs islandais face à l’hyper-industrialisation.
Vidéo
Artwork
so excited when this song was finally found (björk originally wrote it in 2002) - very proud to make the artwork for a total tuuune.
the single will raise funds to support the people of seyðisfjörour in their environmental campaign against intensive salmon farmingJames Merry
Teaser
Photo de l’exploratrice islandaise Veiga Grétarsdóttir
Genèse de la collaboration avec Rosalía
Björk a souvent répété apprécier El mal Querer, l’album de Rosalía sorti en 2018 qui est imprégné notamment de sonorités reggaeton. Elle a aussi expliqué au magazine Dazed être admirative de sa technique vocale.
She’s an incredible singer. I remember when her first album came out I was just blown away by her voice and her commitment to training it.
Björk, Dazed
Björk rencontre Rosalía à Barcelone par l’intermédiaire de El Guincho (producteur sur le titre Ovule sur Fossora) et d’Arca (fidèle productrice sur Vulnicura et Utopia),
i am so happy to announce the release of "oral" a single with @rosalia.vt , tomorrow 21st of november
the profits will all go to stop open net pen fish farming in iceland.
this is a 25 year old song of mine i wrote and programmed inspired by a dancehall beat (the grandmother of reggaeton)
rosalia´s experiments with the genre and her incredible voice made her an obvious guest for the song.
i feel blessed she said yes and she and her team are giving their work and all the profits to this battle.
i think somehow there is an elegant resonance between the fact that both of our voices are the same age on the recording.
i would like to thank @segabodega for co-producing this with me and rosalia.
we have a team of people from the biggest environmental groups in iceland with lawyers that will take on other open net pen fish farming cases, I would like to thank them all for all their hard voluntary work.
industrial salmon farming in open net pens is horrid for the environment. the farmed salmon goes through immense suffering, and it causes severe harm for our planet. this is an extraordinarily cruel way to make food. the fight against the open net pen industry is a part of the fight for the future of the planet.
one of the most severe environmental challenge for the north this century is the acidity of the ocean. in the space of 5 years, norwegian open sea fish farming of companies MOWI and SalMar have already damaged big areas in our fjords , both marine life , animals and plants , which will attribute to that .
we can still reverse this. our legal cases on bio-diversity, cruelty to animals and more could become exemplary cases around the world.
warmthnessbjörk
[...] 25 years later, Björk found a DAT tape with a rough stereo mix down of the track, which I got sent over to see what we could do with it. First I was just blown away that the discovery was made, holy shit, just being transported back to that very important time in her repertoire ! But it was a rough 2T mixdown and she wanted to manipulate the beat she programmed and some of the other elements in the production, esp her vocals which we just didn’t have. So we were like, ok we gotta find the 24T tapes ! The DAT tape had the stereo rough mix and randomly the string stem isolated (no other stems), which I thought was odd but this would actually come in handy later on. A couple months went by and OLI went on the hunt and found 2x 2” 24 track ampex 499 tapes (!!) yes the multi track ! They were sent over and transferred so we had her vocals isolated & other elements but the beat was completely different and the arrangement was missing the strings. @bergurth and I remembered the strings stem were by some miracle isolated on the original DAT tapes so that helped complete the picture.
Couple more months went by and Björk texted me and said that Sega Bodega was co-producing and @rosalia.vt will be a featured vocalist. Mouth hit the floor because that is just a dream team of genius collaborators.Heba Kadry
Björk texted me a few months ago freaking out that she’d found a 25 year old song, she sent me it and that alone made me so happy to be able to hear something like that, so when she asked me if i’d help with getting it to a finished place i kinda froze for a minute, felt a lot of things and then was like ’okay sure !. for rosalía to join on this too feels so special, the relationship between their two voices is so00 beautiful godddddd - all the money from this song goes to helping the salmon in iceland.
just so happy you can all hear this piece of music finally.
huge thanks to heba kadry always for mixing and mastering work as always.
beautiful artwork by james merrySega Bodega
Presse
Quand j’ai contacté Rosalía, après lui avoir transmis un dossier de presse sur le sujet, elle m’a répondu que c’était le même désastre en Argentine et au Chili. Là encore, il n’y a pas de cadre légal, les océans sont livrés au pillage. Il est temps de les traiter comme nous avons légifère pour les terres, avec les parcs nationaux. L’enjeu est de maintenir la biodiversité. Les traitements à base d’antibiotiques et de produits chimiques que subissent les saumons empoisonnent la faune et sont un désastre pour la flore environnante. Tout ceci est documenté à travers des photos qui montrent comment les fjords islandais ont été dramatiquement ravages en seulement cinq ans.
Il est vraiment temps d’agir si nous voulons encore avoir une chance d’inverser ce processus.Björk - Libération
I wrote it between Homogenic and Vespertine and it was just too poppy. It just didn’t fit into either of those albums. I just put it on salt. I programmed the original beat, and I guess I was sort of going for some sort of a dancehall mood. When I was listening to the track, I was like, Hmm, Rosalía, her last album was sort of experimental reggaeton. I can really imagine her voice inside this. Maybe that’s a better way to get a guest vocalist, who sort of represents now, and there’s this tunnel into the past, us having this kind of conversation.
Björk - Pitchfork
What did Rosalía bring to the track that you liked ?
We were actually the same age when we sang this song. I was, like, I don’t know, 33 or something, and she’s 33 now, -ish. [Rosalía is 31.] So I thought, from a pure voice nerd point of view, that’s sort of interesting. At least it’s not necrophilia, but it’s close
What do you remember about …
I’m sorry, I’m speaking over you.No, I was just going to say some bad necrophilia joke.
I’d like to hear a bad necrophilia joke.I’ll leave it at that. At least it’s not necrophilia.
OK. What do you remember about writing “Oral” ?
My interpretation of the lyrics are that you’re wondering about revealing your feelings to a man, maybe crossing over from a dream state. When you listen to your 33-year-old self sing that, what do you remember about it ?Yeah, you’re spot on. It’s totally that moment when you’ve met someone, and you don’t know if it’s friendship or something more. So you become, I guess, aroused. And you become very aware of your lips. That’s maybe why I called the song “Oral.” You don’t know what the consequences are if you act. Sometimes fantasy can be amazing, and that’s enough ; you don’t have to also do things.
But it’s quite playful. It’s not a painful song at all. And even though I obviously didn’t write this song for salmons, I like the fact that it’s a happy song.
One thing you do in the song vocally that I have always liked about your music is the way you shape your voice from smooth to almost a growl.
I don’t think it’s that thought-out, to be honest. And one of the growls that sounds like me is actually Rosalía. I think it was a beautiful audio reference to my voice. I’m very honored. She put a lot of work into singing this. I like the sound of our voices together.Björk - Rolling Stone
I was like, whoa, OK – the beat in it was very primitive, but I guess I was sort of slightly inspired by dancehall from Jamaica.
..
Dancehall is the grandmother of reggaeton. When I heard it, I thought : Rosalía had a lot of reggaeton on her album. I know she really cares and wants to act. I think she was excited about it because she wants to do something about the environment.
...
It is not an activist song. It’s a love song. It’s not about fish. Although you could write a good punk song about that.
...
It is not me at my most experimental. I’m not really a pop musician. That’s sort of why it never made it on [past albums] Homogenic or Vespertine. It was kind of too much sugar. This is as poppy as I’ll ever get. That is why I wanted to give it to a good cause.Björk - The Guardian
It didn’t make sense to release it just as it was, it had to be in some conversation with the present." I think it’s so great that Rosalia is singing and commenting on what I’m singing, that’s how an entrance into the present is formed.
Also, it’s just so cute that we’re almost the same age when we sing the song. There are over twenty years between us.
We’re both talking about oral, wanting to kiss someone, and it’s a bit like a time machine. I’m in my thirties when I’m singing this and so is she. From a musical point of view, it makes so much sense.Björk - Visir
Oral remix par Olof Dreijer
Björk a joué une nouvelle version du titre lors de son dj set à Paris remixé par Olof Dreijer.
Olof a également joué le morceaux lors d’un set
Presse
– How Protesting Iceland’s ‘Frankenstein Fish’ Inspired Björk and Rosalía to Unite for a Surprisingly Poppy Duet via RollingStone
– Björk Discusses Her “Lost” Song and Rosalía Collaboration “Oral,” a Single to Save Wild Salmon via Pitchfork
– ‘I always wanted to be David Attenborough’ : Björk on protecting salmon, going on strike and magical mushrooms via The Guardian
– « L’élevage intensif du saumon ravage les fjords islandais » via Libération
News
– Björk et Rosalía s’associent pour faire campagne contre la pisciculture industrielle
– Oral disponible le 21 Novembre
– Björk en promo sur France Inter
– La collaboration entre Björk et Rosalía est disponible !
– Oral est nommé aux Icelandic Music Awards
– Oral remixé par Olof Dreijer
Crédits
Écriture : Björk
Production : Björk
Additional beat production : Sega Bodega & Noah Goldstein
Additional production & vocal arrangement by Rosalia
Mixage / Mastering : Heba Kadry
Ingénieur du son : Bergur Þórisson & David Rodriguez
Artwork : James Merry
