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Hear Björk's Alluring New Song, 'The Gate'

Courtesy of the artist

Björk's latest song, like much of the Icelandic singer's work, is strangely seductive. "The Gate" heaves and sighs with spare arrangements of strings and woodwinds before expanding magnificently in a bloom of warped electronics that sound a lot like the work of dubstep artist Burial.

"I care for you" Björk trills, over and over. "Split into many parts / Splattered light beams into prisms that will reunite if you care for me."

"The Gate" is the first new song from Björk's upcoming (and yet-to-be-named) album, and arrived earlier than expected. It was originally set to drop next week but appeared online overnight.

Björk says a new video for "The Gate," directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, is also imminent. "'The Gate' is essentially a love song," Huang says in an interview with Dazed. "But I say 'love' in a more transcendent way. Vulnicura was about a very personal loss, and I think this new album is about a love that's even greater. It's about rediscovering love – but in a spiritual way, for lack of a better word."

Björk's new full-length, her followup to 2015's Vulnicura, is expected to drop sometime in November.

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Robin Hilton is a producer and co-host of the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered.