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Björk’s Playlist: 27 musical gems unearthed by the icelandic icon
Invited by Vans’ OTW line to perform a DJ set in Milan on April 8, the Icelandic musician Björk delivered a chaotic set brimming with musical treasures. Discover the singer’s incredible playlist.
by Alexis Thibault.
Björk’s unlikely DJ set in Milan for OTW by Vans
On April 8, the eve of the official opening of Milan’s Salone del Mobile, the Icelandic singer and musician Björk transformed into a sonic medium for a DJ set hosted by OTW by Vans. Beneath the flickering neon lights of a brutalist venue, she offered a sensory journey of striking intensity, stringing together mostly obscure tracks. More than a simple tracklist, her set quickly morphed into a shamanic manifesto, crossing genres, continents, and eras without ever losing its narrative thread.
From deconstructed tribal percussion to soaring ambient interludes and enigmatic, improbable electronic tracks, Björk wove a dense network where each piece seemed to converse with the next, or not. No formatted hits, no easy seduction here. The result was a wild, tangled DJ set, a cartography of her musical obsessions…
In Milan, before handing the reins over to British producer Vegyn, Björk Guðmundsdóttir once again confirmed her status as an unclassifiable icon. Numéro unveils 27 gems unearthed by the visionary artist.
Discover 27 musical gems from Björk’s playlist
Ludu Parinna’s Ataratu (1999) featured in Björk’s playlist
At the crossroads of African traditional music and raw electronica, Ataratu conjures ancestral trance through saturated textures and syncopated percussion. The Indonesian singer crafts a raw sound where the voice becomes incantation, an illustration of radical DIY, in direct line with Björk’s avant-garde intuitions.
Kol S’bah by Caïn Muchi
Fusing poetic dub with deconstructed Oriental sounds, Kol S’bah by Caïn Muchi sketches a shadow-laden nocturnal ritual. Born from the meeting of Vanda Forte and Sinclair Ringenbach in 2018 at Aix-Marseille University, the duo blends regional traditional music and electronic sounds halfway between rap and club music.
Life of the Forbidden (2024) by Clarissa Connelly
A baroque pop incantation, this track showcases the talent of Scottish-Danish musician Clarissa Connelly, a modern heir to Nordic mythological ballads. Minimal orchestration, harp, spectral choirs, and synthetic layers supports a chiaroscuro drama, a kind of folk tradition reimagined.
Bayang’khetela by The Joy
This track by South African collective The Joy radiates choral fervor through traditional Zulu harmonies over minimal instrumentation. Drawing on maskandi, a folk genre of Zulu origin, it weaves in contemporary gospel elements.
A lot of Angels (2024) by Aslaug Magnusdottir, Mia Ghabarou and Ekki Minna
Channeling ambient frequencies into an organic cloud, this piece evokes mystical echoes. Aligned with post-naturalist explorations like those on Björk’s Utopia, it’s a meditative ascent crafted by artists close to composer Ólöf Arnalds.
Donk Jewel by Clark
British electronic composer Chris Clark describes his track Donk Jewel (2024), featured on Björk’s playlist, as follows: “Donk Jewel is nothing more than a rinse-out on a Disklavier [a Yamaha automatic piano system], but it’s a fun rinse-out, and I really like the note choices. I love this tempo. 147. Why not 150? Why not 145? Who the hell knows? Certainly not me.”
No Boundary Condition by Arpanet
A satellite project of Gerald Donald (half of Drexciya, the American techno and electro duo from Detroit), Arpanet unfurls a cold electronica in No Boundary Condition (2016), shaped by a scientific sonic aesthetic. Built around liquid basslines and arrhythmic sequences, the track evokes a perpetually expanding cosmos. True to Detroit techno’s Afrofuturist spirit, Arpanet crafts a gravity-free emotional space, perfectly aligned with Björk’s love for dematerialized musical architectures.
Marhaba by Kizz Daniel
Nigerian singer-songwriter Kizz Daniel blends Afrobeat with contemporary Nigerian pop. With sultry syncopation, highlife guitar motifs, a genre that emerged in the early 1900s in Accra, in the Gold Coast, and melodic autotune, Kizz Daniel proves his knack for crafting vibrant, hedonistic grooves. The inclusion of Marhaba (2024) in Björk’s playlist reveals her keen attention to the current transformations in African popular music, always alert to hybridity and diasporic movement.
Mata by Nídia and Valentina
The track Mata (2024) belongs squarely in the lineage of post-colonial kuduro, driven by Portuguese producer Nídia (a key member of the Príncipe Discos label). The track pulses with raw energy: distorted drums, incantatory chants, and frenzied polyrhythms. Alongside drummer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Valentina Magaletti, she injects a feminist, radical force into a scene long dominated by masculine codes.
Botellharpa by Lechuga Zafiro
An Uruguayan artist working at the crossroads of tribal guarachero and musique concrète, Lechuga Zafiro offers a complex track with Botellharpa (2024), built on deconstructed folkloric elements and a masterful use of stereo space. The DJ and producer has long drawn inspiration from Afro-Uruguayan candombe drumming, Mexican tribal music, and the angular rhythms of Angolan-Portuguese kuduro.
Toast by Original Koffee
For her DJ set, Björk selected Jamaican reggae artist and singer-songwriter Original Koffee, aka Koffee, who delivers with Toast (2018) a modern reggae anthem carried by a minimalist riddim and disarmingly pure vocal arrangements. A landmark piece in new roots Jamaican dancehall, it incorporates gospel harmonies and dynamic syncopations inherited from mento.
SB 1 3 by Black Fondu
Mysterious and hypnotic, SB 1 3, a brilliant track by Ghanaian-born, London-based artist Black Fondu, offers an odyssey of visceral bass and fragmented pulses. With a glitch aesthetic tinged with an almost industrial darkness, the track likely drew Björk in with its fractured rhythmic approach, reminiscent of IDM experiments from the late 1990s.
Imajighen by Mdou Moctar
Tuareg singer and guitarist based in Agadez, Niger, Mdou Moctar fuses the pentatonic structures of Saharan blues with raw rock energy. His saturated guitar, adorned with near-incantatory melodic flourishes, converses in Imajighen (2024) with wiry bass lines.
Fall d’Oklou, remix by A. G. Cook
A.G. Cook, head of the PC Music label, reimagines the track Fall by French producer Oklou by stretching its ambient textures and amplifying its emotional charge. Fuzzy synths, deep bass, and glitch galore… Björk gives her stamp of approval to the hyperpop genre.
Dolphin by Eartheater and Shygirl
Born from a collaboration between Eartheater and Shygirl, the track Dolphin (2025), featured in Björk’s playlist, begins with an ambient base disrupted by liquid basslines. The voices merge into an aquatic murmur, carrying as much sensuality as melancholy… A post-genre hybrid dear to Björk, a fluid anthem drifting somewhere between hyperpop and dreamlike R’n’B.
Also featured…
33EMYBW – Microcosmic
Détruit – Persian Funk
Saliva-D – Growing
De SCHUURMAN – Scratchin
Omagoqa & DBN Gogo – INUMBER Number
Two Shell – Everybody Worldwide
HHY & The Kampala Unit – Resonance Riot
Aya – Essente!
Mutsumi – Jealous Kids
The Original Gabber – Pump That Puy
Gabber Modus Operandi – Trance Adiluhunxxx
WaqWaq Kingdom – Mind Onsen
