Jenny Hval, born 11 July 1980, is a singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and poet from Norway. Her music usually contains feminist themes, but it is also very... explicit about it, to say the least. She is also known for her highly eccentric and artistic live performances.
Jenny was born in the small city of Tvedestrand, and started making music under the name of Rockettothesky in 2006, releasing two albums under this moniker. These two records became minor hits in her home country. Viscera, her first album under her birth name, was released in 2011. She also released Innocence Is Kinky in 2013 and Meshes of Voice, a collaboration with fellow Norwegian artist Susanna, the following year.
Her first album under the well-known indie label Sacred Bones came in 2015 with the release of Apocalypse, girl, which received a lot of critical acclaim. However, without a doubt, her most successful release is 2016's highly conceptual Blood Bitch, influenced by vampires, menstruation and obscure, gory horror films from the 1970s.
Discography:
- To Sing You Apple Trees (2006) - as Rockettothesky
- Medea (2008) - as Rockettothesky
- Viscera (2011)
- Innocence Is Kinky (2013)
- Meshes of Voice (2014) - with Susanna
- Apocalypse, girl (2015)
- Blood Bitch (2016)
- The Long Sleep (EP) (2018)
- The Practice of Love (2019)
Her work provides examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: "Period Piece" from Blood Bitch.
- Bathtub Scene: The music video for "Innocence Is Kinky".
- Careful with That Axe: The collage-based track "The Plague" from Blood Bitch contains a section where you hear a lot of screams.
A lot. - Concept Video: "Conceptual Romance", "Innocence Is Kinky", "Female Vampire", "The Great Undressing", to name a few.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: She used to be part of a gothic metal band. Also, her folk-oriented stuff as Rockettothesky might be this for some people.
- Genre Mashup: While her music is definitely... experimental, her music contains influences from noise music, art pop, Norwegian folk music, ambient, electronic music, post-punk, drone and many other genres.
- The Long Sleep adds jazz and sophisti-pop to the mix.
- Menstrual Menace: Extremely averted on Blood Bitch... in some way.
- Spoken Word in Music: She tends to do that a lot.
- Textless Album Cover: The one for Meshes of Voice.
