by Jaz Bowens
Innocence is Kinky is definitely an album title that grabs your attention. Jenny Hval, the Norwegian musician, singer, author and composer behind the album, is no newcomer to making an audience stop and listen. With such a tantalizing title to go along with her powerful voice, Hval is stepping away from the Oslo music scene to reach new audiences internationally.
Hval has been making music for many years now, with two albums released under the stage name Rockettothesky and two under her real name. She knew it was time to start going by her real name when her music was going in a different direction. “I had used Rockettothesky for so many years that I felt it was time for a change,” she explains. “I wanted to change my name to suit the music that I wanted to make.
Jenny Hval (photo credit, Kristine Jakobsen)
Hval is a multi-talented musician with a unique sound, music that can’t be described with one word or in one genre. Listening, you’ll hear a blend of spoken word, blues, and soul, with experimentation of sound mixed with her inner thoughts. I ask her if she could somewhat agree with my assessment and she can’t describe it either.
“Thank you for saying blues and jazz because I have been drawn to that lately,” Hval admits. “I’m looking to bring elements of that into my music. It is very expressive. After I began experimenting with sound I was curious to see where my music can go from there. ”
Hval’s current album Innocence is Kinky was inspired by her work on a soundtrack revamp for 1928’s The Passion of Joan of Arc. After seeing Joan’s vulnerability and heroism, Hval began to write off the cuff, just by watching the film. She liked the process of writing in the moment. She also began to look at how women are portrayed in the media, specifically from a Norwegian version of MTV’s Teen Mom. The way humans interact inspired her, too.
Jenny Hval is doing new things and the outcome is personal and peaceful as she has taken full reign to say what she wants while enjoying her music. She is seeing how she can morph it and fold it how she wants to, experimenting with emotion, sound, voice, poetry and literature. Two songs from off the album that gives a good idea of what Hval is all about are “Mephisto In The Water” and “Innocence Is Kinky”. “Mephisto” is part singing and part speaking as Hval tells a story to a rhythm. “Innocence” follows the same song structure and it becomes easy to understand how and why Hval is making a sound of her own, blending many different elements so perfectly. It might be too strong of a contrast of what some are used to listening to but after a few times around, her music becomes very genuine and almost enlightened as different becomes celebrated and embraced by how effortlessly the music flows.
Jenny Hval will be in Philadelphia for the first time at Saddle & Boot on November 6th. She is excited and happy to see her Philadelphia fans.
