Björk Announces 2026 Album and Echolalia Exhibition

Björk, the acclaimed Icelandic singer-songwriter, will release her first new studio album in four years in 2026, with tracks premiering as part of an immersive exhibition at Iceland's National Gallery during the Reykjavík Arts Festival. The announcement came via an Instagram post from the festival on December 1, highlighting the project as a collaboration with visual artist James Merry.

The exhibition, titled Echolalia, opens on May 30, 2026, and will occupy the entire gallery space. It features three installations that blend visual, aural, and emotional elements, drawing on Björk's multimedia collaborations with musicians, artists, designers, dancers, filmmakers, and technicians. Two of the installations, Ancestress and Sorrowful Soil, serve as tributes to Björk's late mother, conservationist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who died in 2018. Ancestress acts as an epitaph, inspired by a video filmed on the land where Hauksdóttir gathered herbs, while Sorrowful Soil is described as a poignant poem set in a remote Icelandic valley, involving a pilgrimage of musicians and dancers, including Björk and her son, Sindri Eldon.

The third installation, unnamed at this stage, will showcase music...