Selvutsletter

SHELLAC、SWANS、ST. VINCENTらのサポート・アクトは無論、LINDSTROMなどとも共演を重ね確固たる地位を築いたノルウェーが誇るS.S.W. / エクスペリメンタル・アーティストJENNY HVALとマルチ・インストゥルメンタリストHAVARD VOLDENによるコラボレーション・プロジェクト。2021年にリリースされたデビュー作『MENNESKEKOLLEKTIVET』が、ピッチフォーク「ベスト・ニュー・ミュージック」に選出し、ロングセラーとなった大注目デュオ待望の新作です。

2022年にリヨンでのコンサートをきっかけに制作が開始され、HAVARDのビート、ギターコードをベースにHVALが再構築しメロディー、リリックを加え更に肉付けをした作品。デビューLPのムードを引き継ぎ、クラブミュージック、エクスペリメンタル・ミュージック、そしてロックをミニマルに繋ぎ合わせています。本作で更に飛躍を遂げたデュオの今後にも期待が高まります!

On Selvutsletter, Jenny Hval and Havard Volden honor Lost Girls exploratory roots by venturing into unfamiliar creative methods. Largely written for a live showcase in Lyons, France, their second full-length trades in a different kind of immediacy than their previous work. The improvisatory pieces that made up Feeling and Menneskekollektivet felt like experiences happening in real time; here, Hval and Voldens varied approaches let them play with the past, present, and future. On concise, discrete tracks like "With the Other Hand," they seize the moment while emphasizing the constructed, heightened nature of performance itself: "I am strange/Dont look away/Take it in," Hval breathes over Voldens rippling guitar. Its one of several pieces that rank among Hvals most pop-oriented music since her solo album Blood Bitch. Similarly, Selvutsletter uses its pop tropes in challenging ways rich with allusions. "June 1996" sets its bittersweet recollections to the deceptively smooth sound of strummy mid-90s indie pop. Deep, David Lynch-like synths soundtrack the chaotic "choreography of living" on "Timed Intervals," where Hval uses the rasp in her voice almost like a distortion pedal. The dance beats used to transcendent effect on Hvals The Practice of Love return on Selvutsletter, this time joined by careening guitars on the highlight "Ruins," an elegant version of noise rock that ties together her memories of growing up in a "Bible belt nowhere" with musings on the inevitability of mortality. Selvutsletter lives up to its name -- a phrase coined by Volden and Hval that translates to "self-effacer" -- thanks to the shifting perspectives in Lost Girls songwriting. Hval is a detached observer of history repeating itself on "Re-Entering," noting, "They demonstrated here in the 50s … Soon they will have to demonstrate again/I can smell it." On "Sea White," she takes the viewpoint of a character longing to erase their transgressions, and as the song slowly traces its emotional journey with queasy electronic drones, its a reminder of Lost Girls hypnotic power when they stretch out. Selvutsletter is some of the duos most expressive and widest-ranging work -- and given how committed Volden and Hval are to experimentation, thats saying something. ~ Heather Phares