Norwegian artist Jenny Hval is set to release her new album ‘Iris Silver Mist’ on May 2nd.
The songs for this album were created over the past few years, and in a rare move, Jenny Hval shared some of the material through powerful performances last year. The album’s title refers to a fragrance crafted by perfumer Maurice Roucel for the French brand Serge Lutens, and scent is a significant aspect of the project – Jenny even used rice cookers during the initial performances to fill the venues with the aroma of cooked rice.
‘Iris Silver Mist,’ coming out on May 2nd via 4AD, contains 13 tracks, beginning with the lead single ‘To be a rose.’
The chorus – “A rose is a rose is a rose is a cigarette” – reflects Gertrude Stein’s renowned phrase, while also serving as a reflection on fragrance, beauty, and toxicity.
Describing it as a “restless” pop song, Jenny Hval says:
It features a chorus with chords and a melody, but each iteration sounds subtly different, as if we are experiencing the melody across various seasons, decades, or even through different bodies. The familiar rose metaphor in the song is also restless, transforming into a cigarette and then dissipating into smoke.
My mother and I (two restless beings) are both present in the song: ‘I was singing in my room, she smoked on the balcony/Long inhales and long exhales performed in choreography.’ Ultimately, ‘To be a rose’ reflects how one thing transforms into another, how we all originate from someone and someplace, and how this reality is more peculiar and powerful than we realize.
Director Jenny Merger Myhre compiled the video using archival footage filmed during various tours from 2015 to 2024.
Check it out below.
Tracklist:
1. Lay down
2. To be a rose
3. I want to start at the beginning
4. All night long
5. Heiner muller
6. You died
7. Spirit mist
8. I don’t know what free is
9. The artist is absent
10. Huffing my arm
11. The gift
12. A ballad
13. I want the end to sound like this
Photo Credit: Jenny Berger Myhre
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Norwegian artist Jenny Hval is set to release her upcoming album 'Iris Silver Mist' on May 2nd. The songs for the album were developed over the past few years.