Get ready to sink your teeth into a new Jenny Hval LP, as the Norwegian sound artiste has announced a vampiric follow-up to last year's Apocalypse, girl. Her Blood Bitch arrives September 30 through Sacred Bones.
A statement from Hval calls the collection "a poetic diary of modern transience and transcendence," one informed horror and exploitation films of the '70s, synth sounds, and "the drony qualities of Norwegian black metal." It's added that Blood Bitch is "an album of vampires, lunar cycles, sticky choruses, and the smell of warm leaves and winter."
Hval's full statement about the album is as follows:
Blood Bitch is an investigation of blood. Blood that is shed naturally. The purest and most powerful, yet most trivial, and most terrifying blood: Menstruation. The white and red toilet roll chain which ties together the virgins, the whores, the mothers, the witches, the dreamers, and the lovers.
Blood Bitch is also a fictitious story, fed by characters and images from horror and exploitation films of the '70s. With that language, rather than smart, modern social commentary, I found I could tell a different story about myself and my own time: a poetic diary of modern transience and transcendence.
There is a character in this story that is a vampire Orlando, travelling through time and space. But there is also a story here of a 35-year-old artist stuck in a touring loop, and wearing a black wig. She is always up at night, jet lagged, playing late night shows — and by day she is quietly resting over an Arp Odyssey synthesizer while a black van drives her around Europe and America.
So this is my most fictional and most personal album. It's also the first album where I've started reconnecting with the goth and metal scene I started out playing in many years ago, by remembering the drony qualities of Norwegian black metal. It's an album of vampires, lunar cycles, sticky choruses, and the smell of warm leaves and winter.
The first preview from the collection, "Female Vampire," is streaming now. The ethereal yet driving piece strings together Hval's cloud-soft vocal harmonies with grounded motorik rhythms.
The song can be sampled below, where you'll also find Hval's upcoming tour dates. So far, unfortunately, there are no dates in Canada.
Blood Bitch:
1. Ritual Awakening
2. Female Vampire
3. In the Red
4. Conceptual Romance
5. Untamed Region
6. The Great Undressing
7. Period Piece
8. The Plague
9. Secret Touch
10. Lorna
Tour dates:
06/03 Dudingen, Switzerland - Kilbi Festival
06/04 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound Festival
07/16 Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Festival
08/05 Katowice, Poland - Off Festival
09/01-04 Wiltshire, England - End of the Road
09/30 New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
10/17 Glasgow, Scotland - Stereo
10/18 Manchester, England - Soup Kitchen
10/19 London, England - Oslo
10/21 Brussels, Belgium - AB
10/22 Paris, France - Point Ephemere
10/24 Luzern, Switzerland - Suedpol
10/26 Berlin, Germany - Kantine am Berghain
10/27 Amsterdam, Netherlands - De School
10/28 Hamburg, Germany - Kampnagel
10/29 Copenhagen, Denmark - Jazzhouse
11/11 Los Angeles, CA - Resident
A statement from Hval calls the collection "a poetic diary of modern transience and transcendence," one informed horror and exploitation films of the '70s, synth sounds, and "the drony qualities of Norwegian black metal." It's added that Blood Bitch is "an album of vampires, lunar cycles, sticky choruses, and the smell of warm leaves and winter."
Hval's full statement about the album is as follows:
Blood Bitch is an investigation of blood. Blood that is shed naturally. The purest and most powerful, yet most trivial, and most terrifying blood: Menstruation. The white and red toilet roll chain which ties together the virgins, the whores, the mothers, the witches, the dreamers, and the lovers.
Blood Bitch is also a fictitious story, fed by characters and images from horror and exploitation films of the '70s. With that language, rather than smart, modern social commentary, I found I could tell a different story about myself and my own time: a poetic diary of modern transience and transcendence.
There is a character in this story that is a vampire Orlando, travelling through time and space. But there is also a story here of a 35-year-old artist stuck in a touring loop, and wearing a black wig. She is always up at night, jet lagged, playing late night shows — and by day she is quietly resting over an Arp Odyssey synthesizer while a black van drives her around Europe and America.
So this is my most fictional and most personal album. It's also the first album where I've started reconnecting with the goth and metal scene I started out playing in many years ago, by remembering the drony qualities of Norwegian black metal. It's an album of vampires, lunar cycles, sticky choruses, and the smell of warm leaves and winter.
The first preview from the collection, "Female Vampire," is streaming now. The ethereal yet driving piece strings together Hval's cloud-soft vocal harmonies with grounded motorik rhythms.
The song can be sampled below, where you'll also find Hval's upcoming tour dates. So far, unfortunately, there are no dates in Canada.
Blood Bitch:
1. Ritual Awakening
2. Female Vampire
3. In the Red
4. Conceptual Romance
5. Untamed Region
6. The Great Undressing
7. Period Piece
8. The Plague
9. Secret Touch
10. Lorna
Tour dates:
06/03 Dudingen, Switzerland - Kilbi Festival
06/04 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound Festival
07/16 Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Festival
08/05 Katowice, Poland - Off Festival
09/01-04 Wiltshire, England - End of the Road
09/30 New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
10/17 Glasgow, Scotland - Stereo
10/18 Manchester, England - Soup Kitchen
10/19 London, England - Oslo
10/21 Brussels, Belgium - AB
10/22 Paris, France - Point Ephemere
10/24 Luzern, Switzerland - Suedpol
10/26 Berlin, Germany - Kantine am Berghain
10/27 Amsterdam, Netherlands - De School
10/28 Hamburg, Germany - Kampnagel
10/29 Copenhagen, Denmark - Jazzhouse
11/11 Los Angeles, CA - Resident