Jenny Hval

Biography

Jenny Hval ( vaal, born 11 July 1980) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter, record producer, and novelist. She has released nine solo albums, two under the alias Rockettothesky and seven under her own name. In 2015, Hval released her fifth studio album, Apocalypse, Girl×Apocalypse, girl8 June 2015 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Kingsize2Take Care of Yourself3That Battle Is Over4White Underground5Heaven6Why This?7Some Days8Sabbath9Angels and Anaemia10Holy Land, to widespread critical acclaim on the label Sacred Bones. She followed with several well-received solo albums on Sacred Bones and later 4AD Records.
Under the name Lost Girls, Hval has released two full-length collaborative studio albums – Menneskekollektivet (2021) and Selvutsletter (2023) – with her husband and musical partner Håvard Volden.
After initially studying literature and working as a freelance columnist and writer, Jenny Hval has published four novels, Perlebryggeriet (Pearl Brewery) (2009, translated into English as Paradise Rot: A Novel), Inn i ansiktet (Into the Face) (2012) and Å hate Gud (To Hate God) (2018, translated into English as Girls Against God).

Music career

Until 1999, Hval was the vocalist of a gothic metal band called Shellyz Raven. She studied at the University of Melbourne, Australia, specializing in creative writing and performance. While studying, she was vocalist in Australian bands iPanic and Folding For Air with Thomas McGowan, releasing an EP titled Are you afraid of heights? in 2004.

Debut EP

Moving back to Norway, she released her debut EP Cigars in 2006, and was nominated for a Spellemannprisen (the Norwegian equivalent of Grammy Awards) in the "best newcomer" category. Adopting the name Rockettothesky, she was signed to Trust Me Records, releasing two studio albums – To Sing You Apple Trees in 2006, and Medea in 2008.
Following the release of Medea, she went back to using her birth name. Signing on the label Rune Grammofon, she released the albums Viscera×Viscera18 February 2011 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracks1Engines in the City3:392Blood Flight6:453Portrait of the Young Girl as an Artist6:414How Gentle7:265A Silver Fox1:436Golden Locks6:197This Is a Thirst8:028Milk of Marrow7:559Black Morning / Viscera6:00 (2011) and Innocence Is Kinky×Innocence Is Kinky19 April 2013 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Innocence Is Kinky4:262Mephisto in the Water4:043I Called3:244Oslo Oedipus2:435Renée Falconetti of Orléans4:296Give Me That Sound2:087I Got No Strings5:228Is There Anything on Me That Doesn’t Speak?3:429Amphibious, Androgynous4:3710Death of the Author3:3611The Seer3:26 (2013). In 2015 she released her third album, Apocalypse, Girl×Apocalypse, girl8 June 2015 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Kingsize2Take Care of Yourself3That Battle Is Over4White Underground5Heaven6Why This?7Some Days8Sabbath9Angels and Anaemia10Holy Land on New York City's Sacred Bones Records. Her solo music has been described as avant-garde, art-pop, and "a kind of experimental folk music," among other terms. She has also collaborated with Håvard Volden, as Nude on Sand, releasing a self-titled album in 2012, and with Susanna Wallumrød, which resulted in a 2014 album Meshes of Voice×Meshes of Voice15 August 2014 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 15 tracks1Droplet2:152Black Lake5:283Milk Pleasures2:174I Have Walked This Body5:375O Sun O Medusa2:196A Mirror in My Mouth3:057Thirst That Resembles Me4:158I Have a Darkness4:489A Sudden Swing2:5310Honey Dew1:2011Medusa3:1912Running Down4:1413House of Bones2:2814Dawn4:0515The Black Lake Took3:23 (released on Wallumrød's SusannaSonata label). She supported St. Vincent on a tour.

Blood Bitch

In 2016 she released the album Blood Bitch×Blood Bitch30 September 2016 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Ritual Awakening1:422Female Vampire3:373In the Red2:214Conceptual Romance4:325Untamed Region4:526The Great Undressing4:007Period Piece2:428The Plague5:589Secret Touch4:3910Lorna2:06 where she collaborates with Lasse Marhaug. The album was awarded the Phonofile Nordic Music Prize in 2017. The judges released a statement calling the album "engrossing, atmospheric, challenging and thought-provoking."
In 2018 she collaborated with Håvard Volden again under the name Lost Girls, to release an EP entitled Feeling. The duo's name was inspired by the eponymous graphic novel.
In September 2019, Hval released her seventh album, The Practice of Love×The Practice of Love13 September 2019 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 8 tracks1Lions3:582High Alice4:463Accident4:114The Practice of Love3:035Ashes to Ashes4:156Thumbsucker4:167Six Red Cannas4:078Ordinary5:18, featuring guest vocals from Vivian Wang (formerly of the psych rock band The Observatory), Australian singer-songwriter Laura Jean, and French experimental musician Félicia Atkinson. Hval had intended a tour to promote the album, but cancelled the North American shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, Lost Girls released their first full-length LP, Menneskekollektivet. The album was received to "universal acclaim," according to aggregate review website Metacritic.
Classic Objects, her eighth album released in March 2022, also received universal critical acclaim. A second Lost Girls studio album, Selvutsletter, was released in October 2023.

Iris Silver Mist

On 1 May 2025, Hval released her ninth studio album, Iris Silver Mist×Iris Silver Mist2 May 2025 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Lay Down4:162To Be a Rose3:533I Want to Start at the Beginning2:264All Night Long6:015Heiner Müller1:006You Died3:327Spirit Mist1:538I Don’t Know What Free Is4:479The Artist Is Absent1:2310Huffing My Arm1:2811The Gift2:3712A Ballad3:4613I Want the End to Sound Like This5:42. Named after a perfume by Serge Lutens, the album is influenced by fragrances, the sense of smell, and Hval's 2024 live performance piece, I Want To Be a Machine, which was described as "open-ended mediation on the purpose of art". Regarding the resulting studio album, Hval noted: "I think I’ve made an album that very much places music in between life and death, a place to speak with – or sing with – the dead. Whether it’s people, other artwork, public space, or democracy. This is how I see the sort of eerie string sounds on some of the album tracks. Misty, hoarse, ghostly, but still making sound, and with texture and scent."

Style and influences

Hval was influenced by the androgyny in 1980s pop music. In particular, she was inspired by the music video for Kate Bush's song "Cloudbusting", which features Bush as a young boy; Hval has expressed her admiration for the English musician's ability to write from many different perspectives. In her Master's thesis, The Singing Voice as Literature, Hval explored the sound poetry of Kate Bush's music, analysing the lyrics and music together, instead of as separate parts of a song.
Hval's spoken-word delivery has also been compared to Laurie Anderson's artistic output.

Novels

After studying literature and working as a freelance columnist and writer, Jenny Hval published her novel Perlebryggeriet (Pearl Brewery) in 2009. An English edition, titled Paradise Rot: A Novel, was translated by Marjam Idriss and published by Verso Books in October 2018. Her second work, Inn i ansiktet (Into the Face), was published in Norway in October 2012. Hval published her third novel, Å hate Gud (To Hate God), in 2018, which also received a translation into English by Marjam Idriss and was published by Verso Books under the title Girls Against God in October 2020.

Studio albums

As Rockettothesky

As Jenny Hval

With Lost Girls

With Nude on Sand

EPs

As Rockettothesky

With Lost Girls

As Jenny Hval