Staff Reviews

Jenny Hval, Apocalypse, Girl (Sacred Bones), July 8th

Review by Alexander Tudor

A more complex album than on first impression»

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Think big, girl, like a king, think kingsize. Jenny Hval's new record opens with a quote from the Danish poet Mette Moestrup, and continues towards the abyss. 'Apocalypse, girl' is a hallucinatory narrative that exists somewhere between fiction and reality, a post-op fever dream, a colourful timelapse of death and rebirth, close-ups of impossible bodies - all told through the language of impossible pop music. When Norwegian noise legend Lasse Marhaug interviewed Jenny Hval for his fanzine in early 2014, they started talking about movies, and the conversation was so interesting that she asked him to produce her next record. It turned out that talking about film was a great jumping off point for album production. Hval's songs slowly expanded from computer loops and vocal edits to band mates Havard Volden and Kyrre Laastad - and finally exploding into collaborations from Oystein Moen (Jaga Jazzist / Puma), Thor Harris (Swans), improv cellist Okkyung Lee and harpist Rhodri Davis. All of these musicians have two things in common: they are fierce players with a great ear for intimacy, and they hear music in the closing of a suitcase as much as in a beautiful melody. And so 'Apocalypse, girl' is a very intimate, very visual beast. It dreams of an old science fiction movie where gospel choir girls are punks and run the world with auto-erotic impulses. It's a gentle hum from a doomsday cult, a soft desire for collective devotion, an ode to the close-up and magnified, unruly desires. Jenny Hval has developed her own take on intimate sound since the release of her debut album in 2006. Her work, which includes 2013's critically celebrated 'Innocence Is Kinky' (Rune Grammophone), has gradually incorporated books, sound installations and collaborations with poets and visual artists. For Hval, language is central, always torn between the vulnerable, the explosive and total humiliation.
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