In 2020, Norwegian art-pop musician, Jenny Haval was like everyone else, a private person, not a performing artist out and about. "I was reduced to 'just me.'" she said. She wondered, what does 'just me' mean? Was it the version that never got away from her hometown? Was it the idea that there is an obvious truth behind a work of art? Is art nothing but a fancy, difficult construct, and that is not really necessary? What is its value?
When Hval started writing stories that eventually became Classic Objects, the pandemic hit and she remembered these specific times in her life, these phases of feeling completely stripped of value. It made her want to write simple stories. Her problem was that she found that the music component in the writing process made the words stray from their path and even jump into the absurd. "I think it is just bound to happen when there is music involved. After all, a song isn’t just words, it has a melody, and the reason we have melodies is to step into the dark and jump off cliffs,” she said. Listening to Classic Objects, one almost feels like they are floating around in Hval's unconscious mind as she uncouples herself from convention and lets a musical landscape just unfold as she explores ideas of self. It's quite the trip and one worth taking.
.jpeg)
0 Comments