Avant-garde Norwegian singer Jenny Hval has just released a new song titled “Conceptual Romance”. The single is the latest release off of her upcoming record Blood Bitch, and can be listened to below:
The track, like the others released off of Blood Bitch, is slow paced and droning. The floating, seemingly structure-less vocals, while beautiful and dreamy, add a sense of uneasiness to the track. The instrumentation is minimalist and quiet, highlighted by a constant, pulsating bass and sporadic percussion. The violent, vampiric lyrics revolve around the theme of blood. Regarding this, Hval stated that Blood Bitch is “an investigation of blood. Blood that is shed naturally. The white and red toilet roll chain which ties together the virgins, the whores, the mothers, the witches, the dreamers, and the lovers.”
The highly anticipated Blood Bitch was announced back in May. Besides working on Blood Bitch, Hval has kept herself busy recently with many high-concept art demonstrations. One such demonstration was at Primavera, where Hval and her ensemble wore blonde wigs and skin-colored attire. Hval screamed at the crowd, through mock tears, “Are you crying too?/ All I want to do/ Is to make everybody cry!”. At Pitchfork, Hval splattered blue paint on white jumpsuits, humped clowns, and orgasmic-ally read stage directions into the microphone. Late last year, Hval released a video for her single “Take Care of Yourself”, in which she expressed her feelings of vulnerability, as well as her disdain for the repetitive processes women endure in order to look acceptable by society. Hval is definitely no stranger to exotic, boundary-pushing videos, as last year’s release “Sabbath” featured the highly stylized story of a young girl’s erotic realization. The single came off of Hval’s last release Apocalypse, Me, a dark, off-kilter record that shows Hval has no intention of conforming with anyone.
If you are interested in seeing Hval’s antics live, tour information can be found here.