Next month, the Norwegian avant-garde type Jenny Hval will release Iris Silver Mist, a new album that's named after a perfume. We posted lead single "To Be A Rose," and now Hval has followed it with a new track called "The Artist Is Absent." That title is an obvious play on Marina Abramović's The Artist Is Present, and it might be enough to convince you that this will be a heady, intimidating piece of music. It's not. It's a jam.
"The Artist Is Absent" is a giddy, sticky pop song built on a big, shuffling breakbeat, and it's among the most outright pleasant things I've ever heard from Hval. The track's slightly-extended "89 second rewrite" has a disorienting video from director Jenny Berger Myhre, and Hval has a short North American tour coming up in September. Check out the video and the tour dates below.
TOUR DATES:
4/05 - Madrid, Spain @ Electrónica en Abril
5/21 - London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall *
5/23 - Brussels, Belgium @ Le Nuits Botanique
5/27 - Berlin, Germany @ Silent Green (Betonhalle) *
5/30 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Muziekgebouw
6/05 - Oslo, Norway @ Parkteatret *
6/29 - Paris, France @ Days Off Festival
9/05 - Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
9/06 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
9/08 - Portland, OR @ Polaris
9/10 - Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
9/12 - Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village
9/15 - Toronto, ON @ Longboat Hall
9/17 - Brooklyn, NY @ Williamsburg Music Hall
* with Thea Grant
Iris Silver Mist is out 5/2 on 4AD.
