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Norwegian musician and novelist Jenny Hval has unveiled a new single/video, Freedom, from her forthcoming album, Classic Objects.Classic Objects is Hval’s version of a pop album. While there are interchangeable moments of complexity in each song, there’s a feeling of elevation and clarity in the song’s choruses. This is evident with new single Freedom, which unfurls with a resonating melody as Hval’s honeyed voice presciently sings: ‘Out there is the world / where you’re threatening the lives / of fragile individuals when you stir in the mud. / Look to the birds, / to the crowds that have dispersed / in the wounded air that we call freedom.’
‘This is the only way I can describe Freedom – as a kind of performative moment that breaks up the structure, language and ambivalence of the rest of the record,’ says Hval. ‘On its own, it seems weirdly clear and pure. I can’t really defend it. Or perhaps it is myself I can’t defend. The song is necessary. It just reminds me of the fact that I am not.’
The song’s accompanying video is another collaboration from the trio of Hval, Annie Bielski, and Jenny Berger Mhyre following their work together on the ambitious Year of Love video.
‘In 2020, like everyone else, I was just a private person,’ says Hval. ‘No artists were allowed to perform. I was reduced to ‘just me’. As a result, Hval questioned what ‘just me’ could mean. As an exercise, Hval wrote straight-forward stories about life, investigating the stripped-down just me concept.’
When Hval started writing stories that eventually became this record, the pandemic hit and she remembered specific times in her life that felt completely stripped of value; like when a celiac diagnosis halted the start of her music career. Hval elaborates: ‘This made me want to write simple stories. My problem was that I found that the music component in the writing process made the words stray from their path and even jump into the absurd. I think it is just bound to happen when there is music involved. After all, a song isn’t just words, it has a melody, and the reason we have melodies is to step into the dark and jump off cliffs.’
The resulting Classic Objects is a map of places; past places, like the old empty Melbourne pubs Hval’s band used to play in, public places Hval missed throughout lockdown, imagined, future places, and impossible places where dreams, hallucinations, death and art can take you. It is interested in combining heavenly things and plain things.
Local support comes from NIIX. NIIX is a Manchester-based singer, producer and DJ, mixing ethereal vocals with crunchy, deconstructed production. Her debut EP I has received support from the likes of BBC Introducing, NTS and Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist, alongside support slots for Låpsley, Max Cooper and DJ sets for Gottwood Festival and Africa Oyé. NIIX brings her new live set to Manchester for the first time on 19 August, inspired by the likes of Shygirl, VTSS and Charli XCX. It will also make its Liverpool premiere on 10 September as part of Stealing Sheep‘s all-day festival SHEEPTOPIA.
This is a 10+ show. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.
Price: £16 adv
Info/tickets: https://www.heymanchester.com/jenny-hval-4
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Band on the Wall, 27-29 Swan Street, Manchester, United Kingdom
Tickets
GBP 18.1