Björk played a special DJ set at a rave held to coincide with this week’s solar eclipse – check out footage below.
The one-day Echolalia festival took place yesterday (August 12) at Víðistaðatún in Hafnarfjörður, just outside the country’s capital city of Reykjavik. As well as a set from Björk, the event also featured DJ sets and performances from Arca, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, 33EMYBW, Sideproject and Ronja Jóhannsdóttir.
Arca’s performance included the moment of “totality” at approximately 5:48pm local time, with the moon entirely obscuring the sun and plunging the site into darkness for just over a minute. Björk then took to the stage at 5:50pm and played for an hour, until the eclipse came to an end.
She wore a balloon-like outfit and danced behind the decks, playing tracks including Marina Herlop’s ‘Jaque’, Safety Trance and Arca’s ‘El Alma Que Te Trajo’, Kelela‘s ‘If We Meet Again’ and Machine Girl‘s ‘Down To The Essence (Mun Sing Remix)’.
She also played Conrad Taylor’s remix of ‘Berghain‘, her collaboration with Rosalía and Yves Tumor. Watch footage of the performance below.
The event was held within the narrow path where the moon entirely covered the sun, marking the first total solar eclipse visible in Iceland since 1954.
It also shared its name with Björk’s ongoing Echolalia exhibition at the National Gallery of Iceland, a show that presents three large-scale audiovisual installations. Two reimagine ‘Ancestress’ and ‘Sorrowful Soil’ from her 2022 album ‘Fossora‘ – both composed in memory of her late mother – while the third offers a preview of the unreleased track ‘Nerve Bloom’, which is expected to appear on her next album, due in 2027.
Earlier this year, Björk joined Rosalía to perform ‘Berghain’ at the 2026 BRIT Awards. She has also shared the concert film from her ‘Cornucopia’ tour, and is contributing music to the forthcoming sci-fi multiplayer game SEED.
Speaking to NME in 2022 about her relationship with Iceland and nightlife, she said: “I’m not really an urban person. I love visiting cities and going clubbing or seeing a gallery or concert, but then I just want to go home. I’m more of a rural person by nature.”
