JENNY HVAL
Iris Silver Mist 4AD
Multi-talented Norwegian’s ninth LP is a feast for the senses.
Like Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, singer/artist/novelist Jenny Hval is adept at making nuanced art-rock records with many layers of meaning. Named after a scent created for French perfume house Serge Lutens in 1994, Iris Silver Mist began life in Hval’s head and nasal passages during the pandemic, when, absented from the various earthy or celebratory smells of human interaction at gigs, she became obsessed with perfumes, and their association with intimacy and a kind of memory-jogging time travel.