Bjarki to explore ‘A Guide To Hellthier Lifestyle’ on new album
The Icelandic artist describes the concept album as “a reflection, a rebellion, a bit of a piss take. But mostly, it’s just me, doing what I do.”
Bjarki is set to release a new album called ‘A Guide To Hellthier Lifestyle’ on December 13.
The 13-track outing marks the first LP released via the Differance label he co-founded with Thomas Harrington Rawle.
It’s a concept album based around the “psychological landscape of contemporary social issues” such as wellness and its intersection with capitalism, utilising experimental sound textures and techniques with the aim of “encouraging listeners to pause and contemplate the absurdities of contemporary life”, taking inspiration from artists such as Coil, Genesis P-Orridge, and Paul Lansky.
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“This new album is my take on all the social weirdness and wellness obsessions happening right now. It kicked off with a track I started in California – the story of a soul that got born into the wrong womb,” says Bjarki. “During that time, I was noticing more and more of this whole ‘wellness religion’ everywhere – people trying to sell you ‘good vibes’ and random people offering you life coaching sessions on Instagram who maybe have less life experience than a houseplant. All these apps that track our every move; it’s like they’re repackaging control and calling it ‘self care’. Capitalism in yoga pants. That's when I started putting ‘A Guide To Hellthier Lifestyle’ together. A never ending, self improvement rabbit hole. We are all being sold this idea that we are not quite enough and we need to buy our way out to being better.
“At one point, I took a break from the album and started working on another album full of satirical speeches, AI generated voices, where I create my own voices and type in some ideas of speeches, taking the piss out of wellness gurus and life coaches. I messed a lot with these AI voice generators, creating these deep, faux serious monologues. Proper weird stuff, but it cracked me up. Reminded me of the early days, when I was 13, making tracks on Fruity Loops, mucking around with text-to- speech generators. After the break I came back to finish ‘The Guide’ on a much deeper level.”
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He adds: “It’s a reflection, a rebellion, a bit of a piss take. But mostly, it’s just me, doing what I do.”
No advance singles will be released from the album, but two standalone tracks will be coming out beforehand, with the first of those, ‘10'000 Steps But Still Biting My Nails’, out now, which evolves from a soothing opening of fuzzy synth tones to more wigged-out territory.
Listen to it below and pre-order the album here.
Tracklist: 1. Intro 2. Real Insight 3. How Do I Love 4. We Are Reasonable People 5. Divine Wash 6. Puppet Parade 7. Healing From Memory 8. Fragile Growth I 9. Fragile Growth II 10. Transmutation Hymn 11. WOMB RIDER 12. Toxic Release 13. VOID VISITOR