Check out Susanna (aka Susanna Wallumrød of Susanna and the Magical Orchestra) performing the new song "Freeze" live together with Jenny Hval (Rockettothesky) and Hilde Marie Kjersem. Susanna's new album "Wild dog" will be officially released on March 16 via .
The Arts Desk has posted a third installment of their Nordic Music Round-Up series: http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/just-scandinavia-nordic-music-round-3
Featured artists include Jenny Hval, Alog, Mirel Wagner, Black Twig, Firefox AK, Karin Park, Den Svenska Tystnaden and many more.
Jenny Hval on the new Hanne Hukkelberg album "Featherbrain", due out February 17 via : http://www.propellerrecordings.no/hanne-hukkelberg-introducing-featherbrain
artists Jenny Hval and Phaedra will be making their London debut together at the Borderline on March 19. And in related news, labelmates Motorpsycho will be playing London as well, at the Garage on April 12.
Jenny HvalThe poststructural feminists are going to have field day with this one. There's already been so much said on Jenny Hval, former alias Rockettothesky, that it requires some self-reflection of adding more unnecessary internet debris. I'll try to make this short and sweet. First off, "Viscera" -- the first effort released under her own name -- scares the shit outta me. Kicking off with a quirky avant-garde-like recitation, it dropkicks you like a welterweight champion of morbid genius. Heavyweights I'm referring to of course of dark siren goddesses and radical poets: Kate Bush, Siouxsie Sioux, Elisabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, Patti Smith, Laura Nyro, etc. It's no wonder Ms. Hval wrote a Masters' thesis on Kate Bush, probably something as bad-ass as Lacanian readings on voice (think: Mladan Dolar's, "A Voice and Nothing More", MIT Press) or phonocentrism. Just as Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" was inspired by an Emily Brontë novel, Jenny Hval draws on strong literary influences. It takes special brains to not only extrapolate necessary understanding of one's music on paper, but be a decisive act/performance as well. And she certainly is.
An old music critic once told me you can tell everything about a band by reading their lyrics. Most of the time you do it reluctantly, with one-eye squeezed shut -- especially bands where English isn't their first language. It's painful to ingest the gaping vulnerability of text, so it's often treated it as a discardable or excess entity, sidelined by the "real" stuff. But here the music follows the imagery of the words, pieced together like limbs conjoined and changing; developing within itself, evolving, caving in, and even exploding ("Portrait of the young girl as an artist"). Jenny Hval exhibits beautiful harmonic development ("How gentle") but her songs never get so lost to return to a theme ("Blood flight"). It never so alienates it's listener should you understand it, and patience is rewarded abundantly.
- Ann Sung-an Lee
PopMatters reviews the Jenny Hval solo album "Viscera": http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/148426-jenny-hval-viscera/
Dusted reviews Jenny Hval's new record "Viscera", her first under her own name and not Rockettothesky: http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6576
Jenny Hval (nee Rockettothesky) is the latest artist to appear on Listen to Norway's "Live at the Office" program: http://vimeo.com/24256928
Via The Wire, a video portrait of Norwegian artist Jenny Hval (nee Rockettothesky). Direct link: http://vimeo.com/21597670
Two new videos from Jenny Hval off her upcoming "Viscera", due out February 18 via .
Jenny Hval (nee Rockettothesky) is streaming a new track at Soundcloud from her upcoming debut "Viscera": http://soundcloud.com/jennyhval/blood-flight
The nominees for this year's lucrative by:Larm Statoil Grant have been announced and they are Harrys Gym, Ulver, Ost & Kjex, Kvelertak, Montée, 120 Days, Jenny Hval, Turns, Lukestar and I Was A King. Knut Schreiner aka Euroboy will be heading the jury making the final decision.
I'm not sure what the official release date is, but has posted the cover art for their next release which will be Jenny Hval's (nee Rockettothesky) new record "Viscera": http://www.runegrammofon.com/artists/jenny-hval/rcd-2108-jenny-hval-viscera/
Episode #6 of Norwegian music podcast "99 Minutes" is now online: http://www.listento.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2010100410432464509498
Featured artists include Dimmu Borgir, Alog, Monzano, Supersilent, Hanne Hukkelberg, Jenny Hval, Motorpsycho and more.
