Jenny Hval - Viscera

http://images.theartsdesk.com/images/stories/NEW_MUSIC/Kieron_Tyler/jenny_hval/jenny-hval-viscera_web03.jpg

Any thoughts on the new Jenny Hval (from Rockettothesky) on Rune Grammafon? Just giving it a first listen (on Spotify) and it sounds fantastic. Beautifully recorded songs that mix guitars and drums and subtle ambient electronics to create this gorgeous shimmering luminescence that folks like Bark Psychosis used to deal in - mostly quiet and hushed but not without a certain taut intensity. Vocal delivery makes me think of Laurie Anderson or Meredith Monk, lyrics are um, somewhat intimate. Lots of singing about her fanny afaict, would definitely be interested by people's responses to that.

Maybe it's just the nordic thing, but it's kind of like Lau Nau, but a little less homespun and a little more pristine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF6hvxQBDSo

Googling tells me she's a member of the Kate Bush forum - figures!

Been dipping in and out of her latest album for a while now. Liking the job that John Parish has done on it, but I think it's a testament to the strength of Hval's sense of self that she doesn't wind up sounding like a PJ Harvey clone at all, even when the music gets a bit bluesy and grungey. Intriguing artist, still haven't really figured her out. Anyone else heard this?

Yes! I've been sort of quietly obsessed with it since it came out, and narrowly missed seeing her live with Kirin Callinan a couple of weeks ago...

This record with Susanna Wallumrød is a joy from start to finish

and not to take anything away from either of them, it's another amazing *sounding* recording by Helge Deathprod, makes lightness feel so damn heavy

Have you managed to buy this or is it a review copy? Have had a copy on order for an age.

haven't got a copy but it's on spotify

Still waiting for my copy to arrive ...

Been digging this record for a minute now (I downloaded, tho)

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/17362-jenny-heval-that-battle-is-over/

Saw her live last night, great fun, fantastic sound. I'm going to have to get her new album. She's coming across as more of a performance artist these days but there's some great songwriting anchoring it all.

seeing her next week, not really too sure what to expect

At Black Box, Leonard Pine? I wanted to go but couldn't.

Yep! It was good, if I were you I'd try to see her at some later point. I really wasn't sure what to expect but the performance art elements mainly made for a really tightly controlled performance (no inbetween song applause for example) and some entertaining window dressing like video art and bewigged technicians/dancers. The musicians were called pretty much no attention to and were sat with the audience which I've never experienced before either. There were some suppressed giggles at the more out there stuff but I'm 99% sure it was meant to be funny in the first place. But it was really all about the music, which was great - I'd only heard "That Battle Is Over" which wasn't representative at all, probably one of the slowest songs of the night.

She's performing Meshes of Voice with Susanna at the Kongsberg Jazz festival in a couple weeks which I'd love to see but they're on at 2 on a workday :/

I am not familiar with her, but was just checking out Apocalypse, girl from a list of new releases on Spotify, not knowing what to expect. I would not have thought I'd want this sort of thing, especially the spoken word bits, but so far I think it's great. On the first couple tracks it feels like she's taking on everything, shooting irony in all directions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGksHxwnap0

Lyrically, from what I remember (I think I've only listened to the full album twice) the rest of the album being less obvious and heavy-handed, and more full of surprises, than this track. I'm saying this because I can imagine someone being uninterested or even a little turned off by this single, still really liking the album.

The video is pretty gorgeous (while full of the grotesque).

A lot of this lyrically feels very heavy handed indeed but it SOUNDS gorgeous.

The whole album sounds great, true (and imagine if I were listening to it on something legitimate).

This is probably a little more typical of the album than the video track above.

As far as lyrics go, the spoken word opener to the album is pretty good and funny, I think.

definitely enjoy the lusher tracks towards the end of the record more than the stuff at the start

god i made some abominable earlier posts on this thread

Innocence is Kinky is retrospectively one of my favorite albums of 2013. I'm slightly surprised it didn't place in ILM's EOY poll.

I wasn't into IIK at all, but I really like half of the new record.

The P4k interview is good!

“Take Care of Yourself” goes for a delicate intimacy that you can’t really get when everything becomes about sexual success, and this frightening idea that sexuality is not something that leads to something and then climaxes and it’s over; it’s this endless thing that you can never satisfy. You can see it very cynically—just floating on the sea not doing anything, just wallowing. It’s like the Internet: click click click.

She says a lot of inspiring stuff, I'll have to check out the record. Hilarious cover art.

oh yeah also "soft dick rock" is v funny

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0263/1575/products/hvalfrontblack_18660a53-7ef2-4f8f-8de6-80f9b851ee84_1024x1024.jpg

Love her. "Sabbath" is really excellent.

I like how "Sabbath" goes from a metrically/melodically free form stretch that's most about telling a story, to a chorus that anyone writing straightforward song form would be very happy to come up with. There are other cases on this album when loosely structured tracks contain more closed, more melodic and traditionally musical, forms.

There's another one of those striking shifts in "Why This." (I keep being reminded of the Psychic TV/White Stains collaboration At Stockhlom, though I would a million times rather listen to Havl. But some of the use of samples (or just sound) and the alternation between unmetered stretches and passages where rhythm comes to the foreground is reminiscent. I'd love to have an instrumental version of At Stockholm, actually.)

Hilarious radio station in-studio performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZpSuYamMsE

"Hilarious" was going to far.

I am disappointed with the video for "Sabbath." Getting a bit tired of the way she distances herself from the beauty of her own music or from the authentic feelings expressed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csIDglmrupc&spfreload=10

'Conceptual Romance' is just a beautiful song

i agree

Agreed!

new album blood bitch streaming on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2016/09/22/494571616/first-listen-jenny-hval-blood-bitch

I'm absolutely in love with this album. Conceptual Romance, The Great Undressing, and Secret Touch are truly incredible songs, just transcendent pieces of dark, intimate, and introspective pop lyricism that has been largely missing in my music diet of late. Many of the other songs, such as In the Red, on their own are a bit intense in their sonic explorations, but fit very well in the big picture of this record as an "album" which I really enjoy. Can't wait to get a physical copy.

I've only recently gotten into her, but I've just been floored by her voice and sound. Very intensely creative and intimate artist. With blood powers.

"Secret Touch" is great. Pop music infused with raw humanity.

She's on the cover of the newest Wire

Not up to the standards of Innocence is Kinky or (the more relevant, because aesthetically closer) Apocalypse, girl to me.

today truly felt like the first day of fall in chicago -- complete with cold wind -- and this album connected around magic hour time, it'll serve as my halloween 2016 soundtrack

Fancy vinyl version of BB - http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr161-jenny-hval-blood-bitch

Seeing her tonight with Moor Mother and Olga Bell! Her last show in Philly (for Apocalypse, Girl at the Boot & Saddle; I forget the openers) was incredible so my expectations are pretty high

have always been a bit intrigued with individual songs i have heard - if you had to choose one record is this new one just as good a place to start as any

Start with Apocalypse Girl. More consistent and less intensely experimental than Blood Bitch. I feel you'll have a good idea whether or not you'll like her after just taking in the first couple songs off that. However, I feel the new one has the higher peaks and is the more rewarding repeat listen.

Personally, I think they're both much better than Innocence is Kinky. I have yet to hear Viscera.

Have her lyrics got any less blunt this time around? That killed the last one stone dead for me even when the music was often excellent.

I can hardly make out most of the lyrics on the new one.

I think Apocalypse, girl is just as "experimental." Blood Bitch just seems very blurry all the way through, and doesn't have the peaks of Apocalypse, girl. Where are the brilliant melodic eruptions on the new one? Blood Bitch is also not as varied in terms of sheer sound. She had a lot of collaborators for Apocalypse, girl, which obviously doesn't inherently make an album better, but in this case the greater sound palate is a huge attraction.

Also kind of getting annoyed with her. An album about vampires and menstruation--Oh Jenny, you're so quirky!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IwDEUV6yA0

definitely my favorite so far, with a special treat for fans of the last album

the first Lost Girls LP is out on March

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/602bd80030935c407867c3a0/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/Lost-Girls.jpg

01 Menneskekollektivet
02 Losing Something
03 Carried by Invisible Bodies
04 Love, Lovers
05 Real Life

the structure of the title track is similar to "Drive" on the Feeling EP from 2018 (I think their only other release under the Lost Girls name?) - over 10 minutes, beginning with a long spoken word (in this case about jehovah's witnesses and an inverse "in the beginning" featuring darkness and silence) before building up to the more synth/singing/song-oriented last half.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ah7o9sxpHk

Love this. Enjoying hearing her stretch out over beats that aren't her usual.

Wish I still mixed, I would love to put this track in a set.

Lost Girls album is out, it's lovely.
Also still surprises me to hear the Australian in Hval's spoken word bits, even though I know she lived here for a while.

Where's it out? I see a pre-order link on Bandcamp ...

oh out tomorrow, I can wait.

ah i'd never noticed the australian influence in her accent before

album is great

can't wait to listen to the full thing!

i mean, i can wait. just saw lukas' post and thought well yeah, i can wait too i guess :)

It's on Spotify here--does that stagger releases by local date? I assumed it came out everywhere at once.

i don't see the album yet on spotify, just the two singles (menneskekollektivet and losing something)

it's not on Spotify here yet. it is not yet available in the United States. I am prevented from hearing it.

spotify staggers releases by local date in general except for the occasional major label pop album which gets a global worldwide release

i think people who enjoyed the title track will like the rest of the album too, it's similar in feeling but there's a lot of nice guitar soloing too

kind of reminds me of lindstrom & prin thomas's ii which i love

also maybe the closest we'll ever get to a new knife album? like it's not ripping them off or anything but very much feels like an unexplored direction they could have gone on

Damn that sold out quick :/

Listened to Menneskekollektivet after I saw it was a duo with Jenny Hval (from the cover I had thought probably a female indie rock band). I am not really feeling the long pieces, too meticulous and conceptual and not really gripping. Hval is not at her best. The true highlight turned out to be 'Real Life' (guitar also a nice addition on Losing Something).

New cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhVN_oRcv8

if you like Jenny Hval, I recommend the new Tirzah album

I like both Jenny Hval & Tirzah - unsure how compatible they are. JennyH is far more wordy than Tirzah for one - that new Tirzah record has a kind of chilly, hazed ambiguity which is pointedly unpretentious in my mind. Part of her ineffable charm is that her songs have an unfinished , rough quality whereas Jenny H is unafraid of going into territory which sounds like she has composed dramatic decidedly 'unrandom' mini symphonies and she pairs this with lyrics which are an odd mixture of almost academic textbook ideas & visceral emotion. JennyH has got more material with probably more variety in there as wellm- Tirzah just has those two albums. Thinking this through now - it IS an interesting comparison and I can see some similarities in that they are both clearly thoughtful artists with layers of sub text - but the finished product for me & approach seems kinda opposite. Its got me thinking though.

so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJB7UR91JrA

yes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i2oJJwgLTk

gorgeous

new album's very good, maybe not quite as good as the lost girls album last year but still very enjoyable

general vibe reminds me of aerial and animals so it's really made for me

Her music is often beautifully layered, here it's beautifully bare, natural-mechanical, and placing more focus on her solo voice, almost approaching Susanne Sundfør lyrical art pop. It feels very confident and accomplished. Not every composition hits, but each tries something out convincingly and the eight songs are consistent.

This is a really addictive and super-accessible album and I think my favourite Hval to date. Instantly gratifying as a fresh springtime pop album but there are layers and layers and layers to unpick. The structures are possibly less conventionally pop than on The Practice of Love but it is somehow a much easier and more nourishing listen.

the year of love is a fantastic song

Finally listening to this.

Given it is currently uncertain whether Julia Holter will make further albums in the vein of Have You In My Wilderness, I’m very grateful to Hval for stepping into the breach so consummately.

Why'd it take me so long to listen to this? Julia Holter vibes are right, Tim F. A rather stunning, accessible, naturalist pop record.

coincidentally listening to it right now. excellent album!

I've had this on my 'to listen' list for a while, just getting round to it now thanks to the thread bump. This is great so far, Year of Love is such an arresting song.

lovely new song, 'buffy':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoBkkXpvO9E

sublime

new lost girls album isn't as strong as menneskekollektivet or classic objects but is still quite nice

“jupiter” is an astonishing song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E5918QP394

how does she keep coming up with choruses like this

Anyone else thought of The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) when hearing that drum beat ?
I'm not sure I like the direction in vocal delivery (on the verse) and the song is a bit of a boring crescendo, but it has her signature layering and it might grow on me. Always excited about more Jenny Hval.

'Boring crescendo'?! This is incredible.

Maybe. I meant the way she often builds her songs on unexpected turns; this one sounded more straightforward, adding layers and powering-through. It's minor, I still appreciate the song, especially this first part up to the chorus. Probably more worthy to stress on how she continues to manage to innovate / experiment - her "singles" never sound the same.

Full album up for preorder:

https://jennyhval.bandcamp.com/album/iris-silver-mist

just went back to Blood Bitch - this is the album that introduced me to her, but it really feels like an outlier now - part album, part theater piece. the contrast between something like The Plague and Secret Touch is really a joy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8oUoD8dxnE

this is quite nice but strangely only half of this is actually on the album?

new album is pretty good, i don't think quite as strong as the last but it's rather similar in vibe

have been transformed into something gossamer by this

oh, like you weren't already fantastically gossamer

Didn’t really connect with Classic Objects as much as with her previous work but this new one seems more immediate to me; really love the flow of it.