You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.

I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe.

This week, I wanted to go back and revisit the Bjork episode that I made back in 2015, in part because it's one of my favorite episodes.

And in part because this fall in 2022, Bjork has a new album coming

out, and she also has a new podcast, where she talks about the making of each one of her albums

in conversation with their collaborators. The show is called Sonic Symbolism. Here's the trailer.

Most of us go through faces in our lives that take roughly three years.

And it is not a coincidence that this is often how long it takes to make an album, a book,

or a film.

In the conversations on this podcast, me and my friends try to capture which moods, timbers

and tempos were vibrating during each of my ten albums.

When I get asked about the differences of the music on my records,

I find it quickest to use visual shortcuts.

That's kinda why my album covers are almost like homemade tarot cards.

The image on the front might seem just like a visual moment.

But for me, it is simply describing the sound of it.

I try to express this with the color palette, the textures of the textiles, with what I'm holding,

and the angle of the posture I'm in shows its relationship to the world.

Also the emotion of the mouth tries to share the overall mood of the album.

Perhaps you can call this some sort of sonic symbolism.

I hope you enjoy it.

Worms, Bjork.

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