Bjarki will release a new album next month.
A Guide To Hellthier Lifestyle is the first album to land on the Iceland artist’s Differance label, which he co-founded with the artist Thomas Harrington Rawle.
Conceptually, the album explores “the psychological landscape of contemporary social issues,” we’re told, “offering a sideways rumination on lifestyle dilemmas and wellness obsessions, presenting itself as a response to the modern condition.”
Bjarki investigates how specific frequencies can impact consciousness, awareness, mood, and mental state, thereby influencing our perception of reality.
Sonically, it’s influenced by Coil, Genesis P-Orridge, and Paul Lansky.
His sound design provides a listening experience that “bridges the physical and imaginative realms; sometimes placing the listener in contemplative sanctuary, and at others making them lost—somewhere strange, uneasy, disconnected.”
Alongside the announcement, Bjarki shared the following message:
“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. 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.
“I moved part of my studio to Latvia and continued in the countryside for few months. I realised that I just wanted to give people something beautiful. This album is a big hug from me to the world. So, yeah, this album is all of that. It’s spiritual, bits and pieces from the past, all these weird cultural moments, and whatever strange places my head goes. It’s a reflection, a rebellion, a bit of a piss take. But mostly, it’s just me, doing what I do.”
The album will be released only in its entirety on December 12, with no advance singles. Instead there are two standalone tracks, the first of which, “10’000 Steps But Still Biting My Nails,” is streaming below.
Read more about Bjarki in his XLR8R feature here.
Tracklisting
01. Intro
02. Real Insight
03. How Do I Love
04. We Are Reasonable People
05. Divine Wash
06. Puppet Parade
07. Healing From Memory
08. Fragile Growth I
09. Fragile Growth II
10. Transmutation Hymn
11. WOMB RIDER
12. Toxic Release
13. VOID VISITOR
A Guide To Hellthier Lifestyle LP is scheduled for December 12 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “10’000 Steps But Still Biting My Nails” in full via the player below and pre-order here.
