Jenny Hval has announced her new album, Iris Silver Mist, which takes its name from a fragrance made by Maurice Roucel. It arrives May 2 via 4AD, and you can listen to the lead single, “To Be a Rose,” now. The song’s accompanying music video is comprised of tour footage of the Norwegian artist from 2015 to 2024, all of which was shot and edited by Jenny Berger Myhre. Check that out below.
“‘To Be a Rose’ was written as a restless pop structure,” explained Hval in a statement. “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.”
Iris Silver Mist follows 2022’s Classic Objects and spans 13 songs in total. Several of those tracks were formed and rehearsed in live settings last year before being recorded, in an effort that Hval described as emphasizing “the physical and live elements of music.”
Hval has a handful of tour dates approaching this spring, too. After a concert in Madrid, Spain, on April 5, the experimental art-pop musician will head to London, Brussels, Berlin, and Amsterdam. Her last show, for now, is set for June 5 in Oslo, Norway. Find all of Hval’s upcoming tour dates below.
Read the new review of “To Be a Rose.”
All products featured on Pitchfork are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Iris Silver Mist:
01 Lay Down02 To Be a Rose03 I Want to Start at the Beginning04 All Night Long05 Heiner Muller06 You Died07 Spirit Mist08 I Don’t Know What Free Is09 The Artist Is Absent10 Huffing My Arm11 The Gift12 A Ballad13 I Want the End to Sound Like This
Jenny Hval:
04-05 Madrid, Spain – Electronica en Abril05-21 London, England – Islington Assembly Hall05-23 Brussels, Belgium – Le Nuits Botanique05-27 Berlin, Germany – Silent Green (Betonhalle)05-30 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Muziekgebouw06-05 Oslo, Norway – Parkteatret
