Vulnicura

Vulnicura was written about the end of her relationship with Matthew Barney. Arca was brought in after his mixtape &&&&&, and The Haxan Cloak (Bobby Krlic) co-produced Family and mixed the album. Björk wrote the string arrangements. Paul Tingen's account in Sound On Sound describes writing and vocals at her New York home studio, first string sessions at Sundlaugin in October 2014, larger sessions at Syrland the next month with about thirty players on Stonemilker, and the main mixing at Room 313 in Reykjavík. Black Lake was re-recorded there on a Telefunken 251.

Release

The album leaked around 18 January 2015, and the digital release was moved up to 20 January from March. The physical edition followed on 16 March. There were no official singles, but videos were made for Black Lake, Lionsong, Stonemilker (in 360-degree VR), Mouth Mantra, Family, Notget and Quicksand. It reached number one in Iceland, number eleven in the UK and number twenty in the US, and had sold about 250,000 copies by October 2015. Metacritic scores it 87, Pitchfork gave it 8.6, and it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. A tour of sixteen shows was cut short in August 2015.