Jenny Hval's Lost Girls Share New Song "Ruins"

The duo's first piece of new music since 2021's 'Menneskekollektivet'

Photo: Signe Fuglesteg Luksengard

BY Kaelen BellPublished Jul 17, 2023

Lost Girls — the duo of Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden — have shared "Ruins," their first piece of new music since releasing their debut album Menneskekollektivet in 2021.

In a statement about the new single, Hval said:  

Håvard sent me this long, wonderful and kaleidoscopic bass line on top of a drum machine track that I had no clue what to do with — it felt too difficult to try to learn or tame it. I started improvising with it and moving parts around a bit, and the song began to feel like getting lost in a city at night, or a cemetery, walking around in circles, perhaps running, perhaps hiding. After improvising for a bit I realized that I was singing about this kind of pattern of movement, but as a band practice in the '90s, back when I first started playing with other people. If "Ruins" is 'about' anything, it's about a practice of discovery, being young and lost and feeling as if you are close to something ancient and magical.

The song is all forward momentum, a clanging and lovely piece of kinetic post-punk on which Hval sings, "Bodies are stupid / Bodies are dumb." 

Alongside the single, the duo have also announced a fall run of shows with Decisive Pink in New York, Paris, London and Berlin. Jenny Hval's last solo album was 2022's Classic Objects

Listen to "Ruins" below. 

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