The Anchor Song

The Anchor Song
’ANCHOR SONG’ was written in summer 1990, when Bjork left her boy Sindri with a child-minder for a while and set out across Iceland on a "freedom thing". She rode her bicycle around the island with the express purpose of visiting all the hundreds of churches she’d heard about. Since Iceland’s Christianity is based on a crafty get-out clause (the Viking Assembly said they’d pretend to worship Jesus if they could remain Pagans on the quiet), the religious places Bjork found were the wildest. Lots of farmers had these little churches, like just one wooden room the size of a bedroom, and they’re really over-decorated. The farmers would make these naive paintings of the baby Jesus, really smiling, and they’ve got his beard all wrong, and there are all these stars in the ceiling....

NME, 25 december 1993

The Anchor Song
When I brought my demos of Icelandic brass players doing The Anchor Song to my record company, the boss said it was only going to sell a third of The Sugarcubes. It sounds naff to say these things, but it’s just a happy accident that people liked it.

i-D, #154, june 1996

The Anchor song
i wrote anchor song when i moved into my house by the harbour. i was ecstatic ! i had dreamt a dream about diving into the ocean at night and dropping the anchor there soit is about the satisfaction in putting down roots finding a home and belonging i once told my grandmother ( who was an amateur oil painter ) that that song was based on her colours and the compositions in her paintings she simply looked at me and said : "i know"

Björk - Octobre 2021