How Roland Barthes inspired a Björk song
At the end of September, Björk released her tenth studio album, Fossora, which followed 2017’s Utopia. Fossora is a sublime album that explores love, grief, motherhood, and nature, blending classical instruments with pounding electronic beats.
Björk teased the album by releasing the lead single ‘Atopos’ on September 6th. On Twitter, the musician shared that the song is “kinda like Fossora’s passport.” Detailing further, she continued: “Sonically a heavy bottom-ended bass world, we have six bass clarinets, punchy sub drilling, nesting and digging us into the ground.”
In another Tweet, she also explained that the track – which booms with a clattering beat that threatens the stability of the gentle opening vocal melody – was inspired by the late French theorist Roland Barthes.
Roland Barthes is best known for his collection of essays, Mythologies, which explores the way social value systems create modern myths, drawing upon Ferdinand de Saussure’s concept of semiology. He is also well-known for writing The Death of the Author, criticising traditional literary criticism.
However, Björk’s song draws from his 1977 book A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments. The ideas discussed in the book have inspired many pieces of media, including Claire Denis’ 2017 film starring Juliette Binoche, Let the Sunshine In. Discussing the link, Björk tweeted: “The title to the song ATOPOS is inspired by what Roland Barthes describes so magnificently in his book A Lover’s Discourse it is about the unclassifiable OTHER, the one which we love or hate, who is the OTHER?”
The word ‘atopos’ originates from Greek, meaning “out of place” or “unusual”. Within the song, Björk encourages listeners to stop dwelling on differences in relationships, singing, “Are these not just excuses to not connect?/ Our differences are irrelevant/ To insist on absolute justice at all times/ It blocks connection.”
On her website, Björk also wrote: “left versus right, man versus woman and so on, but the song’s theme is to overcome differences and unite.”
In Barthes’ book, he writes: “the loved being is recognised by the amorous subject as”atopos” (a qualification given to Socrates by his interlocutors), i.e., unclassifiable, of a ceaselessly unforeseen originality.” Another fragment reads: “The other whom I love and who fascinates me is atopos. I cannot classify the other, for the other is, precisely, Unique, the singular Image which has miraculously come to correspond to the speciality of my desire. The other is the figure of my truth and cannot be imprisoned in any stereotype (which is the truth of others).”
In an interview with The Guardian, the musician said of the song, “Sometimes, when I really love someone, I will have an interrogation lyric and it’s disguised as my doubts, because I want to be nice – but it’s actually their doubts.”
Listen to the track below.
