…Huh? Wha?…
Gah…sorry, y’all; I must have…dozed off there…
Oh, maaaaan…how long was I OUT for?? It feels like Jenny Hval (a.k.a. the Bjork of Norway) JUUUUST announced a new thing she was doing, like, two days ago.
But, turns out, she’s already announcing the May 25 release of a conceptually-minded (and positively dreeeamy, I’m sure) new EP on Sacred Bones called The Long Sleep??? Holy shit; I’ve got to get my act together. Pass the coffee pot and that press release, will ya?
Okay let’s seee-ee-eeee here: the new EP was recorded “with longtime collaborator Håvard Volden and producer Lasse Marhaug,” alongside a supporting cast of the region’s most somnambulant jazz cats — Kyrre Laastad on percussion, Anja Lauvdal on piano, Espen Reinertsen on saxophone, and Eivind Lønning on trumpet. It also finds Hval “embracing an instinctive, even subconscious, approach to creating meaning” and foregrounding “the act of composition itself, letting the melodies and structures reveal the other elements of the songs.” Here’s a statement from Hval:
What am I doing here? Am I communicating? Am I promoting?
I just want to tell you something.
There should be something I could tell you, there should be something I could do to reach you directly, but there is nothing useful in the way we define “you”, or “me”. There should be something I could tell you, there should be something I could say directly without lyrics and melody.
Maybe that’s what I’m trying here. Something else than lyrics or melody. It’s not the words. It’s not in the rhythm. It’s not in the streaming. It’s not in the “message”. It’s not in the product. It’s not in the algorithms. It’s not something you decided. It’s not something they decided for you.
I want to tell you something. I just want to say: Thank you. I love you.
Whoa. Well THAT sure woke me up! Okay — I’m in. Where do I pre-order this thing? (Oh okay; right over here). And where do I listen to the first single, “Spells?” Oh okay; right down here:
The Long Sleep’s short tracklist:
01. Spells
02. The Dreamer Is Everyone In Her Dream
03. The Long Sleep
04. I Want To Tell You Something
More about: Jenny Hval
