"Bodies are stupid / Bodies are dumb," Jenny Hval sings at the climax of "Ruins," the first new song since 2021 from Lost Girls, her collaborative project with Håvard Volden. It's a funny and misleading line from someone like Hval, whose decade-long explorations of the human body and its disgusting wonder paint them as anything but stupid — they're sites of discovery, vessels for dark magic and slippery prophecies.
"Ruins" is perhaps less concerned with bodies than some of Hval's previous work, instead excavating that spirit of mystic uncovering in the extensions that we feed our pulses through — guitars, drums and keyboards, empty cans and crackling fire. "It's about a practice of discovery, being young and lost and feeling as if you are close to something ancient and magical," she said of the track in a press release.
In its sinewy gallop of ringing guitar, digital horn patches and elastic percussion,"Ruins" feels like climbing steadily from the darkness and into some form of light, pulling music from your surroundings with that youthful, life-or-death urgency. Sometimes you've gotta leave your body behind.
(Smalltown Supersound)"Ruins" is perhaps less concerned with bodies than some of Hval's previous work, instead excavating that spirit of mystic uncovering in the extensions that we feed our pulses through — guitars, drums and keyboards, empty cans and crackling fire. "It's about a practice of discovery, being young and lost and feeling as if you are close to something ancient and magical," she said of the track in a press release.
In its sinewy gallop of ringing guitar, digital horn patches and elastic percussion,"Ruins" feels like climbing steadily from the darkness and into some form of light, pulling music from your surroundings with that youthful, life-or-death urgency. Sometimes you've gotta leave your body behind.