Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that yesterday evening (August 12), Europe witnessed a rare solar eclipse. As our designated messenger between Earth and all things extraterrestrial, naturally, Björk threw a rave to celebrate the occasion. Hosted on the outskirts of her Reykjavik hometown, the event, Echolalia, featured DJ sets from Arca, Ronja and Sideproject, as well as the artist herself.

Attendees travelled from as far as Hawaii and Japan to witness the moment, made up of an eclectic mix of ages. The music stopped for roughly seven minutes as the moon covered the sun, but instead of watching in silence, the audience began chanting “Free, free Palestine”. Someone in the audience used the moment to propose to their partner, making for a very special engagement story. 

As soon as the light returned, Björk made her grand entrance, emerging like a celestial being in a white balloon ensemble designed by Hong Kong-born designer Robert Wun. Obviously, the first track she played was the dramatic soundtrack from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. She closed her set with a remix of Rosalía’s “Berghain” which she features on. The Icelandic artist may not have spoken directly to the crowd, but she did through vibrations – dancing erratically between songs and chaotically drumming on the DJ decks, clutching a glass of rosé the entire time. 

“Of course, the eclipse plunging the area into total darkness was a highlight,” says our photographer on the ground, Alex Atherton. “The setting, in the rocky picturesque Icelandic fields, combined with the experimental music and the rave descending into darkness, certainly made this totally unique.”

To see more scenes from Björk’s otherworldly eclipse rave, swipe through Atherton’s photos in the gallery above.