Black Lake

Björk à propos du titre Black Lake
I think I was mostly focused on emotion. This is the record’s hardest song for me. It was written three months after the divorce. I flew to Japan and didn’t manage to adjust to the time difference, because… you know… [silence]. It was really the bottom for me, in that process. I had checked into this wonderful health retreat to recover from the jetlag, it was just me and James [Merry, Björk’s assistant] and his boyfriend Jón, acting silly and having laughing fits. And there were these hot springs and everyone was wearing Samurai clothes, as if we were in a Japanese animé. I would operate on Icelandic time, sleeping through the day, spending my nights soaking in the hotsprings by myself. And I wrote this song, insanely jetlagged, and I had to work through this feeling… [silence]… It’s like,...

reykjavik grapevine - Janvier 2015

Björk à propos du titre Black Lake
J’étais vraiment gênée par cette chanson. Je peux encore difficilement l’écouter.

Pitchfork - Janvier 2015

Björk à propos du titre Black Lake
I felt almost embarrassed about some of what’s on that album. Like with Black Lake. It’s so full of self-pity. However, it feels a little different if I can say : “that song was written three months after the divorce—give me a break ! I was maybe feeling really sorry for myself and filled with cowardice when I wrote that, but a few months have passed—I’m doing better now !” So there’s also humour in it. But I could barely stand to play it for my friends. I felt embarrassed.

reykjavik grapevine - Janvier 2015

Black lake
i remember writing black lake in a hot spring rural spa in japan this was the bottom of my heartbreak and that combined with jetlag i han"’t been able to sleep for a week or so so at night i would walk down this geo thermal creak and add a verse after verse to this song it was the absolute surrender i wanted the strings in the beginning and at the end to be almost like an old painting where the canvas was coming a part so you could see through it and still today when i ask players to play it i ask them to do it kinda left handed or if their hand is broken. ..... ...then there are the freezes : long chords where you are so paralysed with sorrow you cant move but in the middle of the song you have gathered the courage to express yourself passionately but still : hopefully the music a...

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