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 .
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
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
Jenny Hval (nee Rockettothesky) is streaming a new track at Soundcloud from her upcoming debut "Viscera": http://soundcloud.com/jennyhval/blood-flight
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/
has posted samples of new music in their website's player, including upcoming tracks from "Twenty years of stony sleep", the new record from Jenny Hval (Rockettothesky) and Maja Ratke (Fe-mail, etc.), as well new stuff from artists such as Ultralyd and Scorch Trio: http://www.runegrammofon.com/news
Online literary journal 3:AM talks to Jenny Hval of Rockettothesky about her poetry and her music and many other subjects: http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/maintenant-25-jenny-hval/
New international live dates for Norwegian artist Rockettothesky:
08/07 - Die Kunstapotheke, Berlin (GER) (performing as Nude on Sand)
08/18 - Église de la trape/Mazeroles, Perigord (FRA)
08/19 - Chapelle de Bourgnac, Perigord (FRA)
08/20 - Cave de CIVRB, Cloitre des Recollets, Bergerac (FRA)
09/02 - Punktfestival, Agder Teater, Kristiansand (NOR) (performing as Jenny Hval aka Rockettothesky)
09/25 - The Rich Mix Arts Centre, London (UK) (solo performance/poetry reading as Jenny Hval)
09/30 - Nordic Sounds Festival, Amsterdam (NL)
A number of Norwegian artists have come together to pay tribute to singer/songwriter Egil Olsen (neé Uncle's Institution) on the occasion of his 30th birthday by putting together an album of them playing his songs. Contributors include Thom Hell, Side Brok, Robert Post, Rockettothesky and more and you can get the full tracklist here: http://www.groove.no/html/news/42239378.html (in Norwegian)
Egil, who is currently in LA working on his next album, replied in response to the news (according to Google Translate), "I feel old. Not just 30, but a tribute album? I feel really dead."
The Quietus talks to Jenny Hval of Rockettothesky: http://thequietus.com/articles/03523-jenny-and-the-jets-the-musical-universe-of-rockettothesky
Good to see that she's starting to get some international attention -- she deserves it.
Check out a video of Norwegian artist Egil Olsen performing "Hard work and fate" together with Jenny Hval aka Rockettothesky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urrol_SJM1U
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Bastard Priest - Under the hammer of destruction
02. TALK 1
03. Monty - En till himmel
04. Superfamily - Songs of the weak will die
05. Agent Side Grinder - Black vein
06. TALK 2
07. Murmansk - Silver heel
08. Cleaning Women - Across the void
09. Pintandwefall - Jail
10. TALK 3
11. Tobias Hellkvist - Scars and stripes
12. Truckfighters - Traffic
13. Rockettothesky - Barrie for Billy MacKenzie
14. TALK 4
15. Peter Bjorn and John - I don't know what I want us to do
16. Håkan Hellström - En vån med en bil
17. Barra Head - Common ground
18. TALK 5
19. Makthaverskan - Vi var människor från början
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Norwegian artist Jenny Hval, perhaps better known as Rockettothesky, has written a novel entitled "Perlebryggeriet" ("Perle Brewery"?) which will be released in October. Jenny says, "If you read it very carefully, you can hear the music." More info: http://kolonforlag.no/?type=book&ref=1243 (in Norwegian)
