rune grammofon
Jenny Hval
Innocence Is Kinky
CD/LP release: 19.04.13
‘Something happens when you say “I” in a song, that can’t happen in a book’, declares
Jenny Hval, who’s known in her native Norway both as a musician (both under her own
name, the moniker Rockettothesky, and with the duo Nude On Sand) and as a published
novelist and media commentator. Her songs – featuring frequently explicit language –
explore subjectivity and sensuality and experiment with male perspectives and voices.
But don’t call her music ‘confessional’, as that implies guilt and sinfulness, and
Jenny makes no apology for who she is or what she’s thinking. As she challenges: ‘How
much subject can you take?’
Jenny Hval’s previous, acclaimed Rune Grammofon album Viscera (2011), recorded with
her own free rock trio, overflowed with intimate detail and surrealistic bodily
imagery. Innocence Is Kinky – which also features a string section led by avant garde
composer Ole-Henrik Moe – was produced in Bristol, England by PJ Harvey collaborator
John Parish, who helped bring out the intimate qualities of her lyrics and sharpened
her improvisational tendencies. ‘It was a very easy collaboration…’
Like contemporaries such as Julia Holter and Laurel Halo, she’s weaving spellbinding
new forms of intelligent, experimental pop with injections from mythology, theory,
gender politics and improvisation. You can also trace her no-holds-barred streams of
consciousness and unorthodox subject matter back to earlier heroes such as
Einstürzende Neubauten’s Blixa Bargeld (her title puns on their LP Silence Is Sexy),
Patti Smith, Michael Gira, Nick Cave and Kate Bush, whose praises Jenny recently sung
in a lecture on the female voice. ‘Anything that comes from a woman’s mouth is a
confession, and that’s looked down upon,’ she says. ‘On “I Got No Strings”, I’m
writing about the impossibility of becoming an equal, female subject or finding an
equal voice – the old idea that the male subject is “universal” and the female subject
is “specifically female”.’
Writing music, for Jenny, is closely linked to fiction. Her latest book, Inn i
ansiktet (Sings With Her Eyes, 2012), is connected to Innocence Is Kinky through its
explorations of subjectivity, and in references to Renée Falconetti, the French
actress responsible for one of the most unforgettable cinematic portrayals of
persecution and suffering, as the lead in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 silent movie The
Passion Of Joan Of Arc. Jenny was invited to make a soundtrack to the film in 2011.
‘Some of the songs, like “Renée Falconetti of Orléans”, were made while watching the
film, alongside other depictions of young women – like the Norwegian version of MTV’s
Teen Mom. And while we were rehearsing the songs, there was 22 July 2011 [the Oslo
bombing and Utøya massacre], so that couldn’t not influence anything made at that
time. It’s about the cruelty of the mediated image – how any kind of face that’s on
screen becomes like any other – any kind of crying is like any other kind of crying.’
Born in 1980, Jenny lived for a while in Australia, but on tracks like ‘Oslo Oedipus’,
her hometown becomes the backdrop to Innocence Is Kinky – a city which, unlike New
York or London, has rarely been hymned in song. ‘Being Norwegian is looking at the
world from a very advantaged position, and feeling like we can be removed from what’s
happening elsewhere. But at the same time, our political system is changing, and we
don’t really bother to look, just embrace these changes as if they were a force of
nature. “Oslo Oedipus” is the boarded-up windows after the bomb explosion in July
2011, but it's also the eye that refuses to look back at its own reflection.’
And that paradoxical ‘kinky innocence’? ‘It could be the manifesto of the massproduced image, and the consumer mainstream industry – fetishising and selling every
human quality. There’s so much mysticism about innocence.’
Personnel
Jenny Hval – vocals, guitars, sampling, drum machine, keys, variophon, Håvard Reite
Volden – electric and acoustic guitars, drum machine, keys, iPad, Kyrre Geithus
Laastad – drums, perc, keys, drum machine, John Parish – guitars, bass, detuned drums,
banjo, variophon, keys, trombone, Ole-Henrik Moe – violin, viola, wine glass, saw,
Kari Rønnekleiv – violin, Espen Reinertsen – saxophone
Tracks
‘Innocence Is Kinky’, ‘Mephisto In The Water’, ‘I Called’, ‘Oslo Oedipus’, ‘Renée
Falconetti Of Orléans’, Give Me That Sound’, ‘I Got No Strings’, ‘Is There Anything On
Me That Doesn’t Speak?’, ‘Amphibious, Androgynous’, ‘Death Of The Author’, ‘The Seer’
runegrammofon.com
‘As long as there is a Rune Grammofon, I will always have the thrill of discovery’ David Fricke, Rolling Stone
‘Norway’s finest record label’ The Milk Factory
CD RCD 2142 EAN: 7033662021420
LP RLP3142 EAN: 7033660031421
runegrammofon.com
‘As long as there is a Rune Grammofon, I will always have the thrill of discovery’ David Fricke, Rolling Stone
‘Norway’s finest record label’ The Milk Factory