Norwegian musician Jenny Hval has announced her new album, “Iris Silver Mist”, with the video for the lead single ‘To be a rose’.
Iris Silver Mist emerged during the pandemic when live music ceased, leading Hval to explore perfumes for the first time as a substitute for physical intimacy.
Over a year, she transitioned from music to immersing herself in the world of scent, finding fulfillment in fragrances as music became an absence in her life.
She immersed herself in smelling, reading, and collecting, seeking a way to sense physical intimacy in the void left by music and not performing. From those beginnings, the record that became “Iris Silver Mist” got its name from a fragrance created by Maurice Roucel for Serge Lutens, that was said to ‘smell more like steel than silver—cold and prickly yet soft and shimmering, reminiscent of a chilly, misty morning. A perfume has its heart notes, and it vibes with music, both floating through the air, invisible yet distinct.’
“’To be a rose’ was written as a restless pop structure. It has a chorus, with chords and a melody, but each chorus sounds slightly different, like we are experiencing the melody from different seasons, decades or even different bodies. The clichéd rose metaphor in the song is equally restless. It can change shape into a cigarette and then evaporate to smoke. My mother and I (two restless humans) 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.’ If about anything, ‘To be a rose’ is about how one thing becomes another thing, how we all come from somewhere and someone, and how this is stranger and more powerful than we think.”
Jenny Hval.
The theme of the single stands to give a strong sense of the forthcoming record shifting into smoke and mist as Hval converses and sings along to a drum machine in a montage that characterises the feeling of performing.
The song’s accompanying video is composed of footage shot on various tours from 2015-2024 and edited by Jenny Merger Myhre, who handled visuals on tour in 2015.
“Often we performed on stages or in places that had no screen, or even no projector. As a result, what I filmed would often not be visible for the audience, and so the act of filming became the performance. Using an old VHS-C-camera, I would film parts of the shows as a ritual of seeing and being seen. When we did have a screen, the camera was directly outputting to the video projector, and I loved the moment of going from ‘live footage’ to rewinding into backstage moments, preparations, and previous shows, allowing time travel to happen in real time.”
Jenny Merger Myhre.
Hval will embark on a number of tour dates in Europe this Spring with Thea Grant supporting on several shows, starting off with Madrid in April before concluding in Oslo in early June.
New album “Iris Silver Mist” is out on 2 May on 4AD.
RobMoro 
Norwegian musician Jenny Hval has announced her new album, “Iris Silver Mist”, with the video for the lead single ‘To be a rose’.
Iris Silver Mist emerged during the pandemic when live music ceased, leading Hval to explore perfumes for the first time as a substitute for physical intimacy.
Over a year, she transitioned from music to immersing herself in the world of scent, finding fulfillment in fragrances as music became an absence in her life.
She immersed herself in smelling, reading, and collecting, seeking a way to sense physical intimacy in the void left by music and not performing. From those beginnings, the record that became “Iris Silver Mist” got its name from a fragrance created by Maurice Roucel for Serge Lutens, that was said to ‘smell more like steel than silver—cold and prickly yet soft and shimmering, reminiscent of a chilly, misty morning. A perfume has its heart notes, and it vibes with music, both floating through the air, invisible yet distinct.’
The theme of the single stands to give a strong sense of the forthcoming record shifting into smoke and mist as Hval converses and sings along to a drum machine in a montage that characterises the feeling of performing.
The song’s accompanying video is composed of footage shot on various tours from 2015-2024 and edited by Jenny Merger Myhre, who handled visuals on tour in 2015.
Hval will embark on a number of tour dates in Europe this Spring with Thea Grant supporting on several shows, starting off with Madrid in April before concluding in Oslo in early June.
New album “Iris Silver Mist” is out on 2 May on 4AD.
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