Mesmerizing hypnosis in spite of digitalization
The iconic Norwegian singer-songwriter Jenny Hval returns with her latest project, an EP called The Long Sleep that was released on May 25th, 2018. This is her seventh solo project under her own name and 12th altogether, and her ease as an artist cannot make more sense. Hval’s ultra-feminine, feather-light voice floats all over her work, whether it be the playfully haunting fusion of metal, art-pop and electronica of Blood Bitch or the piercing boldness of Innocence is Kinky. Though Hval’s instrumentals span from the simplest pop minimalism to the busiest noise, her voice never takes a back seat. Its crystal-clear quality reels her growing fan-base in for more and more, and this year’s The Long Sleep continues to do this in a manner she has never encompassed before.
The Long Sleep is Hval’s slowest, most meditative work yet. She begins everything with the entrancing “Spell,” where she uses sweeping grand pianos to set the tone. Beautiful horns and elegant strings join, creating a quick moment of euphoria before a more laidback synth-pop beat fresh from the ‘80s pushes to the front of listener’s attention. Her lyrics are quite pessimistic, casually explaining the futility of anxiety and stress when life is so fleeting, over jangles of cowbells. The horns turn sour ever so slightly for just a second before the instrumental turns cheekily sunny while paired with the light nihilism of her lyrics. Hval scats ribbons of lacy notes before liberating herself of restraint and letting all her desires run free. As she does this, she coaxes her listeners into her beautifully-crafted representation of her subconscious, encouraging them to dive into themselves as well.
“The Dreamer is Everyone in Her Dream” brings up the peculiar imagery of a disco ball just as “Spell” did. She compares her listener, whoever she is addressing, and perhaps even herself to the luminous orb, suggesting that extraordinary appearances may be masking a dullness and detachment from the self from within. She explains this with whispers of a melody. Even if her subject matter probes deep into her own and her listeners self-understanding, she envelops these existential thoughts in a blanket of minimalistic and sunny piano chords. She layers her voice over itself into gorgeous harmonizations and adds to them a techno breakdown. She eventually chants her listeners into hypnosis, allowing them to enter “the long sleep” as she hints at her goals with this project. She is not focusing on her lyrics, nor her melodies nor her rhythms. She is channeling something completely different.
Once “The Long Sleep” approaches, listeners can see exactly what Hval meant. Instead of relying on music’s typical conventions of eliciting an emotional response, Hval intends to reach it with drones. “The Long Sleep” is the central destination of this rabbit-hole journey, even if it is the slowest track in the listing. Cyclical, muffled beats purr into the bed of drones that Hval lays out, while hums, clatters, whispers and bursting blazes of synths scatter in and out her listeners’ presence. Here, she speaks to her listeners directly as if she is some all-knowing deity from up above, pushing them closer and closer to enlightenment. The deep drones eventually quiet out like curtains reeling away to make room for galloping wooden taps and glassy horns. With this, she pushes her listeners further into hypnosis but also urges them to open their eyes. Light synths buzz away, while heavier ones dig their sharp heels into the soundscape she has created. She transforms her vocal sample into a beep and adds licks of ominous ambient noises to steer “The Long Sleep” into a nightmarish territory. Before anything bad happens, the song immediately comes to silence.
Hval transports her listeners back into their regular consciousness by breaking into prose on “I Want to Tell You Something.” Over fluttering flutes and glittering ambient hums, Hval asks her listeners about the experience she had given them. As she had mentioned earlier, she wants to fully reach her listeners and truly communicate with them, after she has realized that words, lyrics, melodies and rhythms cannot convey her soul in full. The insincerity of the mathematic calculations of musical and social success has proven to be insufficient to Hval. As these can never suffice, Hval turns the other direction – with The Long Sleep, she motions towards the deconstruction of music and sound to create a portal to novelty and to new emotions that have not yet been blunted by the information age. The result will send chills down anyone’s back who will allow it to.
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