Jenny Hval

Think big, girl, like a king, think kingsize. Jenny Hval’s new record opens with a quote from the Danish poet Mette Moestrup, and continues towards the abyss. Apocalypse, girl is a hallucinatory narrative that exists somewhere between fiction and reality, a post-op fever dream, a colorful timelapse of death and rebirth, close-ups of impossible bodies — all told through the language of transgressive pop music. It dreams of an old science fiction movie where gospel choir girls are punks and run the world with auto-erotic impulses. It’s a gentle hum from a doomsday cult, a soft desire for collective devotion, an ode to the close-up and magnified, unruly desires.

Jenny Hval has developed her own take on intimate sound since the release of her debut album in 2006. Her work, which includes 2013’s critically celebrated Innocence Is Kinky (Rune Grammofon), has gradually incorporated books, sound installations and collaborations with poets and visual artists. For Hval, language is central, always torn between the vulnerable, the explosive and total humiliation.

CIRCUIT DES YEUX is the solo project of Chicago-based artist Haley Fohr. Named for the nerve in the eye that supplies power to the act of seeing, Circuit des Yeux launched in 2008 following a stint with the autodidactic duo Cromagnon. A combination of folk chanteuse and noise maven, Fohr’s sound vacillates seamlessly between lo-fi and effortless-sounding songwriting sophistication. Says Pitchfork, »the emotional depths can be intoxicating, and even life-affirming«.