Norwegian musician/writer Jenny Hval will follow up last year’s Sacred Bones debut, Apocalypse Girl, with the release of her Blood Bitch LP on September 30th via the label. Today, we watch her new video for the album’s lead single, “Female Vampire.”
Directed by artist/musician Jenny Berger Myhre, who also collaborated on Hval’s beautifully weird video for last year’s “Sabbath,” this newest visual offering continues to explore femininity in intimate and challenging ways. Hval reports via Facebook that the video was filmed in her “Oslo hood,” and it features “Oslo’s best-kept secrets: Orfee Schuijt, Anja Lauvdal, Heiða Karine Jóhannesdóttir Mobeck, Ingrid Haakstad, Sigrid Marie Kittelsaa Vesaas, Marianne Skjeldal & yours truly”.
Complex and nuanced aspects of femininity are explored in Hval’s music, and Myhre’s imagery follows suit as the singer and her posse seem to alternately embody the power of sisterhood, as well as its darker emotional aspects. Central to the video for “Female Vampire” is the haunting image of women who seem to be joined at the cheeks by their sticky, peeling skin–which they later pull from their faces and offer to the camera. The metaphoric implications are devastating, and they are echoed in the closing shots when close-ups of these women’s faces are viewed through a chain link fence–the organic beauty of skin contrasted by the fence’s cold metal. Plenty of powerful “food for thought” here!
Jenny Hval will kick off her North American tour next month at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. You can checkout a full list of her upcoming dates below…
Jul 16, 2016: Chicago, IL Pitchfork Music Festival
Aug 5-7, 2016: Katowice, PL Off Festival
Sep 2-4, 2016: Dorset, UK End Of the Road Festival
Sep 14, 2016: Oslo, NO Ultima Festival
Sep 29, 2016: Philadelphia, PA PhilaMOCA
Sep 30, 2016: New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge
Oct 4, 2016: Boston, MA Great Scott
Oct 5, 2016: Montreal, QC Casa Del Popolo
Oct 7, 2016: Toronto, ON Stereo
Oct 8, 2016: Oberlin, OH Oberlin College
Oct 9, 2016: Washington, DC DC9
Oct 17, 2016: Glasgow, UK Stereo
Oct 18, 2016: Manchester, UK Soup Kitchen
Oct 19, 2016: London, UK Oslo
Oct 21, 2016: Brussels, BE AB
Oct 22, 2016: Paris, FR Point Ephemere
Oct 24, 2016: Luzern, CH Suedpol
Oct 26, 2016: Berlin, DE Kantine am Berghain
Oct 27, 2016: Amsterdam, NL De School
Oct 28, 2016: Hamburg, DK Kampnagel
Oct 29, 2016: Copenhagen, DK Jazzhouse
Nov 11, 2016: Los Angeles, CA Resident
Nov 12, 2016: Oakland, CA Starline Social Club
Nov 14, 2016: Portland, OR Holocene
Nov 15, 2016: Seattle, WA Kremwerk
Nov 16, 2016: Vancouver, BC Biltmore
