Descend into the darkness with Björk’s hauntingly beautiful remix of Shygirl’s track ‘Woe’. Björk has transformed the song into a whole other creature adding eerie dissonant melodies and breathy seductive verses to create the whimsical ‘Woe (I See It From Your Side)’ which was released on the 21st March alongside an enchanting music video.
Image by Shygirl
A dark, sleazy, brooding, yet magical aura permeates the music video shot in Tokyo directed by Samuel Ibrams, who often works with Shygirl creating the artwork for her last album Nymph. Dimly lit retro hotel rooms, glittery multicoloured LED lights, late-night karaoke sessions, adorable fawns, and nocturnal Tokyo alleyways are all caught on the smudgy shaky camera. At times the nauseating shots of unknown places from inside the body mixed with blinding white lights and dizzyingly fast cuts disorientate the viewer – thankfully we have the beautiful Shygirl and Björk’s vocals to guide us through this unsettling maze. The almost vampiric sensual Shygirl is totally captivating whether she’s staring into the camera emerging from a motel bathtub or receiving desperate kisses from lovers with a smirk on her face. Actor George Smale and model Nina Utashiro von Hahn get cosy with Shygirl playing her lucky prey in the video.
In her verses, Björk shares her advice with Shygirl telling her, “I wish her love to you would suffice / But those bitches are not meant to satisfy” and warns her about lovers trying to steal her energy and the spotlight singing, “You’re glowing so hard / They all want to share the flight”.
Björk illuminated the meaning of her added verses in a press release writing, “Shy told me in her lyric she is talking about both different amorous interests and fame and how suddenly everyone wants something from you and you should be thrilled but you´re not and i decided to take an angle as an older ‘amour’ and give advice… because in ‘Woe’ she is asking a question and i decided to reply to it from the SUFI angle which is: enjoy the wanting and the longing and NOT getting what you want but enjoy wanting it… how the whirling dervishes reach up when they turn, it is meant to represent that longing and being content with that… also on a more everyday personal level it is about sometimes when you are not satisfied in a relationship, you should not expect your partner to heal that or fix that… rather look at him or her as a partner in crime or a fellow-not-getter… another human with that insatiable longing.”
Though Björk has reworked the song as a response to ‘Woe’ there are still glimmers of Shygirl’s original delicate vocals at the start of the track and weaved in between Björk’s new verse as well as residual touches of Sega Bodega’s production. Shygirl also demonically croons a new hair-raising bridge whilst alien-like noises crackle softly in the background.
“enjoy the wanting and the longing and NOT getting what you want but enjoy wanting it…” (Bjork)
The 90s Icelandic alt pop icon Björk released her tenth studio album Fossora last year. Taking listeners on a journey down a winding fungal-filled forest path, the album combined Björk’s distinct vocals and poetry with thumping electronica and sinister chamber music to create a very dark kind of fairytale. Björk in a rare collaborative move worked with Shygirl and her producer Sega Bodega to create a remix of the second single from the album ‘Ovule’ leading to this second collaboration between the two ground-breaking artists.
‘Woe (I See It From Your Side)’ is the third track to be released from Shygirl’s upcoming deluxe album Nymph_o which will be released on the 14th April. Last month Shygirl gave us the dream collab by teaming up with R&B singer Tinashe for a dreamy new version of ‘Heaven’. Shygirl gave us a top tier dance track in December when she dropped the first track from the deluxe album ‘Poison (Club Shy remix)’. Prepare for more mystical reimagines of tracks from Shygirl’s album from last year Nymph from artists such as Arca, Eartheater, and Erica de Casier as well as some brand-new tracks.
Image by Kathleen Reilly
Shygirl is currently on the second leg of her Nymph tour performing across the US and Canada until mid-April. She will also be performing at Wide Awake festival in London in May.
See below for the complete Nymph_o tracklist:
1. Angel – Shygirl x Fatima Al Qadiri
2. Heaven Feat. Tinashe
3. Crush Feat. Erika de Casier
4. Woe (I See It From Your Side) (Bjork Remix)
5. Shlut Feat. Sevdaliz
6. Nike Feat. Deto Black
7. Playboy / Positions
8. Poison (Club Shy mix)
9. Firefly (Kingdom Edit)
10. Wildfire (Eartheater Remix)
11. Unconditional – Shygirl x Arca
Words by Molly Sutherland
Header Image by Shygirl
