Jenny Berger Myhre
Jenny Hval Press Photo 2016
Jenny Hval
Blood Bitch, the sixth and latest album by Norwegian writer-singer Jenny Hval, is rife with unsettling noises and sound effects: sudden reverberating screams, spooky echoes and sobs, quick breathing (or is it sawing?) It all makes sense when you understand that one of Hval’s inspirations is — wait for it — 1970s horror and vampire films.
“Horror was, back then, a genre full of subtlety and naiveté, and often free from the dramatic logic and need for authenticity that ruins most mainstream cinema,” says Hval, who’ll make an uber-rare U.S. appearance at the Sett in Union South on March 31. “Horror films could really space out, in a variety of different ways. It was still a part of an underground. I wanted to capture that as well as the chase scenes and jarring cuts.”
Still, it wasn’t until she hit the studio to record and mix Blood Bitch, which just won the 2016 Phonofile Nordic Music Prize (an award handed out by a committee of record execs from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland), that the connection really clicked.
“When I started writing, I wanted to make things that were really beautiful, subtle and naive. So that’s why it became so easy to go into the horror film world,” she says.
During the course of the album’s taut 36 minutes, Hval wraps her soaring, ethereal voice around songs about menstruation, the complexity of relationships, and modern politics and sexuality. “The Great Undressing” begins with a loop of Hval talking with friends about the album. One of them says, “That’s so basic. It’s about vampires…” Hval responds, “It’s about blood,” as she sings the first words of the song: “Like capitalism…”
Hval, whose work has drawn comparisons to Laurie Anderson and PJ Harvey, approaches her live shows with a very different sensibility than her recorded work, but the level of intellect and complexity doesn’t waiver.
“I see live performance as a more dynamic and interactive space than a recording can be, and I think that’s what it ends up being,” she says. “What is this ritual we call a concert? Is it necessary? Why do we need to see humans in the flesh, on stage? Why is it exciting? Can I do something that feels relevant in people’s lives at this point in time?”
These days, Hval finds herself keenly focused on the insanity of the modern political world and how it’s affecting feminism. “We have to be able to think about intersectionality and identity politics and safety,” she says. “This is not the time for endless loops in the echo chamber. Everything is connected.”
Madison is one of only four (!) locations Hval’s playing during her stay in the U.S, thanks in part to an earlier gig in Chicago. Make the time: You may not see—or hear— anything like her like again.
