Electronically mellow.
Tackling the experimental, electronic genre, Norwegian duo Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden combined their seasoned efforts to create Selvutsletter, their October 20 release and sophomore album as a joint musical act.
“Timed Intervals,” the album’s leading track, sets the scene for what would be a sonically diverse, 40-minute listen.
Hval guides the listener through an arrangement of purposeful rasps and groans that add a significant, tonal depth to an otherwise simple tune. Lyrically, not much is to be made out of the song’s storyline, with the only omnipresent aspect being Hval’s high-pitched vocals.
“I could see the planes take off and land / Like a creature inhaling and exhaling / With timed intervals,” Hval croons.
“With the Other Hand” takes a different lead than its preceding track, beginning with the throaty consistency of a guitar strumming. In the foreground, Hval carries the listener through a second-person narrative, detailing an unfamiliar sensation.
Solely speaking from the lens of production, the experimental album is thorough and beat-driven. The instrumentation of each song seemingly exists independently from their corresponding lyrics, such is the instance for the juxtapositional tracks “Ruins” and “Re-entering the City.”
The former relies heavily on a pulsing baseline that consistently permeates throughout the track, with the instrumentation on “Re-entering the City” more mild in its intensity.
“Bodies are stupid / Bodies are dumb / Bodies are nothing,” Hval sings in “Ruins” amidst a chaotically composed arrangement.
The final duo of tunes, “June 1996” and “Seawhite” conclude the album nicely with more of an easygoing, slower ambiance that is coupled with tranquil synths.
From start to finish, Selvutsletter commands the attention of the listener without having to use brunt, intense and typical electronic instrumentation. Through its rather obscure lyricism and narrative style, Hval and Volden curated a 40-minute listen that embeds a plethora of subtle nuances that help to make the album both immersive and soothing.
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