Jenny Hval returns with a new EP, ‘The Long Sleep,’ set for release May 25th via Sacred Bones. The gorgeous sonorous instrumentation and melodies of ‘Spells,’ the lead single from the EP is streaming below now. The Long Sleep EP is the first Jenny Hval release since 2016’s full-length, Blood Bitch. It follows the Lost Girls collaborative EP, released this past February, and precedes Hval’s debut novel, Paradise Rot, published by Penguin Random House’s Verso, and out October 2nd.
The Long Sleep sees Hval embracing an instinctive, even subconscious, approach to creating meaning. In contrast to Hval’s more explicitly conceptual work, The Long Sleep foregrounds the act of composition itself, letting the melodies and structures reveal the other elements of the songs. All of the songs on the EP recycle the same compositional motives, but manipulate them into very different shapes that take them further and further out of their original, “life-like” context.
Hval recorded The Long Sleep with longtime collaborator Håvard Volden and producer Lasse Marhaug, along with an ace new supporting cast of talented players from the jazz world — Kyrre Laastad on percussion, Anja Lauvdal on piano, Espen Reinertsen on saxophone, and Eivind Lønning on trumpet.
“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.”
Pre-order The Long Sleep: https://jennyhval.bandcamp.com/album/the-long-sleep-ep
See Jenny Hval live:
21/04 – Norient & Rewire present Sonic Fiction (concert series), Zürich, Switzerland
10/05 – Nordic Museum, Seattle WA
12/05 – Lodge Room, Los Angeles CA
13/05 – FORM: Arcosanti, Mayer AZ
17/05 – Moogfest, Durham NC
18/05 – Moogfest, Durham NC
19/05 – Moogfest, Durham NC
20/05 – Moogfest, Durham NC
25/05 – Korzo Theater (REWIRE x KORZO), Den Haag, Netherlands
01/06 – Blå, Oslo, Norway
05/06 – St John on Bethnal Green, London, UK
14/06 – Sonar Festival, Barcelona, Spain
01/09 – c/o Pop Festival, Köln, Germany
