It appears that there is a new Björk album on the way in 2026.
The musician’s last studio album was 2022’s ‘Fossora’, but based on information recently announced about an exhibition at the National Gallery of Iceland next summer, her next record is on its way.
In an Instagram post on Monday (December 1), it was revealed that Björk and artist James Merry will be taking over the entire gallery during the Reykjavik Arts Festival, which opens on 30 May 2026.
Björk’s exhibition is dubbed ‘Echolalia’ and consists of three “immersive installations”, two of which have been given titles: ‘Ancestress’ and ‘Sorrowful Soil’. They will give the public “a rare opportunity to engage intimately with works of phenomenal visual, aural and emotional depth”.
The third installation, however, is unnamed, and the post reveals it is “a new work based on music from her forthcoming album, currently in development”.
‘Ancestress’ and ‘Sorrowful Soil’ are named after tracks on ‘Fossora’ and like the songs they are inspired by, the installations have been created in tribute to Björk’s mother, the conservationist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who passed away in 2018.
Björk wrote ‘Sorrowful Soil’ as a eulogy to her mother, singing, “You did your best, you did well”. ‘Ancestress’ was described as an “epitaph” and had a video made for it filmed on the land where her mother used to pick herbs. “The machine of her breathed all night/while she rested/Revealed her resilience/And then… it didn’t,” Björk sang.
In a four-star review of ‘Fossora’, NME wrote: “An album of reinfatuation and reaffirmation, ‘Fossora’ is invigorating in its drive, if there’s little of real surprise here; hard as the mushroom-gabber beats are, if you’ve heard Pluto or Mutual Core, you won’t be shocked. And pop has, to an extent, caught up with Björk a little; to those raised on Blackpink, hyperpop and trap, ‘Fossora’ would hardly be so scary.”
Since then, Björk wrapped up her ‘Cornucopia’ tour in December 2023 and shared the accompanying concert film earlier this year.
She also released the ‘Oral’ charity single with Rosalía, the proceeds from the song being donated to support the legal fight against foreign-owned salmon farming in Iceland, and more recently, she also teamed up with Rosalía again – as well as Yves Tumor – for new single ‘Berghain’.
She has also continued to use her voice for activism, supporting the ‘No Music For Genocide’ campaign by making her back catalogue unavailable for streaming in Israel. She also described Spotify as “probably the worst thing that has happened to musicians” last year, and has maintained her environmental activism, stressing that she is still hopeful for the future of the planet, claiming that “biology always wins”.
