Jenny Hval's The Practice of Love Waxes Poetic on the Human Condition in a Synth Soundscape

Jenny Hval, the avant garde artist hailing from Norway, has released her 7th album, The Practice of Love, on Sacred Bones Records. The intimate eight track album carries the listener back to a trance in an arpeggiated nostalgic soundscape. In her ambitious examination of what it means to be a person in this world, more specifically a childless woman of a certain age, Hval relates her personal world experience to the greater human condition as it were. Her musical stylings build on her previous work, but the synth heavy chords give this rather philosophical ruminating an almost neo-noir and science fiction feel. Most of what Hval does sounds like it would fit perfectly as a soundtrack to any sort of visual adaptation of a Bradbury or Asimov story-line.

Hval released several tracks prior to the entire album’s release, including the video for the track Accident.

While it is perhaps a lot to ask of a collections of songs, to concisely tackle the human condition in such an eloquent manner, here in these eight avant garde pop tracks, Hval certainly comes close. Jenny Hval’s The Practice of Love is out now.