In an interview with Fact Magazine to promote the album, Björk revealed that "Arisen My Senses" was the starting point of the whole record and literally "the first song we did," the "we" referring to herself and Arca, Utopia's co-writer and producer.

She looped a brief sample from a DIS Magazine exclusive mix-tape Arca made in 2011 called Baron Foyel, specifically the track "Little Now A Lot".

After the sad nature of her previous album, Vulnicura, which dealt with the end of her long-term relationship to American artist Matthew Barney, Björk said she tried consciously to do "the opposite now" for Utopia.

Stereogum called Björk's choice of remixers for the EP "impeccably picked" and signaled out Owens' mix as "lush" and "thumping" and "the only one that could conceivably get club play somewhere on earth.

"[5] A "slug genitalia" colored white vinyl followed two months later on 25 May,[6] just two days before Björk took the stage at All Points East in London for the official start of her Utopia tour.

"[10] The remix EP was voted "Record of the Week" by the UK-based online publication Hyponik, and praised the original album version's "abundance of celestial sonics" and Björk's "seraphic voice".

[11] Dazed called the remixes "incredible" and noted Björk's use of tracks by Lanark Artefax and Kelly Lee Owens in her recent DJ sets.

It depicts Björk's rebirth with "the singer emerging from a womb, before entering a fantasy world as a fiery, feathered, winged creature" and has been described as "artfully disturbing".