Jenny Hval returns with new album and single

Jenny Hval (Image credit: Lasse Marhaug)

Jenny Hval has revealed that she’ll release her new album later this year.

The follow-up to 2016's Blood Bitch is titled The Practice Of Love and it'll launch on September 13 through Sacred Bones.

The title is partially inspired Valie Export’s 1985 film of the same name, with the vocalist working with the concept of love as a “poetic and multivalent activity” 

The record will use “the pop song format to attempt to make sense of what love and care actually mean – love as a practice, a calling, a vocation."

Hval explains: “This all sounds very clichéd, like a standard greeting card expression. But for me, love and the practice of love, has been deeply tied to the feeling of otherness. 

“Love as a theme in art has been the domain of the canonised, big artists, and I have always seen myself as a minor character – a voice that speaks of other things. But in the last few years I have wanted to take a closer look at the practice of otherness, this fragile performance, and how it can express love, intimacy, empathy and desire. 

“I have wanted to ask bigger, wider, kind of idiotic questions like: What is our job as a member of the human race? Do we have to accept this job, and if we don’t, does the pressure to be normal ever stop?”

To mark the announcement, Hval, who will head out on the road in support of the album later this year, has released the first track from the record in the shape of Ashes To Ashes.

Find out further details below.

(Image credit: Sacred Bones)

Jenny Hval: The Practice Of Love
1. Lions (feat. Vivian Wang)
2. High Alice
3. Accident (feat. Laura Jean)
4. The Practice of Love (feat. Laura Jean and Vivian Wang)
5. Ashes To Ashes
6. Thumbsucker (feat. Félicia Atkinson and Laura Jean)
7. Six Red Cannas (feat. Vivian Wang, Félicia Atkinson and Laura Jean)
8. Ordinary (feat. Vivian Wang and Félicia Atkinson)

Jenny Hval: The Practice Of Love

Jenny Hval: The Practice Of Love
Jenny Hval will return with her new studio album The Practice Of Love in September. Her first record since 2016's Blood Bitch features the lead single Ashes To Ashes.

Jenny Hval 2019 tour dates
Sep 20/21: Oslo Ultimate Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Norway
Sep 20/21: Oslo Black Box Theatre, Norway
Sep 29: London Milton Court, UK
Oct 15: Frankfurt Mousonturm, Germany
Oct 16: Frankfurt Mousonturm, Germany
Oct 30: Paris Centre Pompidou, France
Nov 09: Utrecht Le Guess Who? Festival, Netherlands

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Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more for Louder. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, The Tragically Hip, Marillion and Rush.