Norwegian singer-songwriter Jenny Hval’s first solo release since 2016, The Long Sleep, is a short but powerful example of her talents. Similar to the full-length Blood Bitch, there does seem to be a central concept, or unifying mood, on The Long Sleep despite it having just four (really, three) songs to explore it.
The length turns out to be just right for this experience, as each of the first three tracks builds the experience of slipping into the “long sleep.” It could be a literal sleep, the figurative long sleep of death, or even an all-encompassing sense of serenity—although, with Hval’s vocals and the musical tapestry she threads, all three seem to be the subject.
The EP begins with “Spells,” the most “traditional,” close-to-pop song on the album and one of Hval’s most accessible ever. Appropriately for the beginning of the EP, in the pre-sleep phase, “Spells” is the most lively and most lyrical of the tracks. The track begins with an atmospheric swirl of orchestral touches and some jazzy horns as Hval’s voice floats in and eventually soars on the chorus. There she reminds the frequently referred-to “you” that “you will not be awake for long/ you won’t have to wait for long [and] we’ll meet in the smallest great unknown.”
Initially, those lines might seem to carry a hint of the sinister, like a threat or a warning that the long sleep approaches. They quickly lose that sense of foreboding, however, and due to Hval’s light-as-air vocals and up-tempo music for the track, she simply sounds like she is stating a fact—a reassuring fact, even. It’s a comfort that sleep will come soon, and it’s a reminder that the long sleep, death, lasts much longer than waking life ever will. Hval communicates without a hint of malice that that is just how it is and is nothing to be afraid of.
That refrain eventually takes over the back half of “Spells,” and lulls you into a trance that carries you into the next track. “The Dreamer Is Everyone In Her Dream” works as an embodiment of the transitory state between waking and dreaming. It begins with a continuation of “Spells,” with sparse vocals and piano notes as the only instrumentation. As the music swells out, “you will not be awake for long” returns like a memory, drifting in and out for a short period before the song turns and becomes something new. The rhythm becomes jumpier and more energetic as Hval chants “this is the long sleep” as if we are passing through a necessary border between two states, like a slightly more welcoming and less haunting version of the 2001 stargate sequence.
That shortly leads into the penultimate, climactic track “The Long Sleep,” which comes in at just over ten minutes. It begins slightly darker than the previous two tracks, with droning synths creeping in and out and trickling notes that create the feeling of being in some sort of cosmic forest. The song doesn’t veer from this general path for most of its run-time. It makes sense, as “the long sleep” portion of the EP is not going to be as dynamic as the waking life portion at the start, but it is slightly disappointing to have the majority of the EP overtaken by something that is so trancelike and static that you could literally fall asleep to it.
The final track is less than two minutes, really a short coda to the experience that came before. Hval speaks over heavily atmospheric music, thinking out loud about “what I’ve been trying to tell you [that] can’t be found in the rhythm or the lyrics.” The music increases around her until her voice is almost hard to parse out until it cuts back and goes quiet again for her simple, final message: “I just want to say: Thank you. I love you.” It affirms the feeling created throughout the rest of the album, with Hval directing nearly every lyric in each song to a “you,” instantly building an intimate experience despite the short length of the EP. This also leads to her feeling like a real presence on this journey, like a shadow or a feeling that is slowly enveloping you, or like a Neil Gaiman-esque personification of Death beckoning you towards her in a calm and friendly manner. The music does its part in sending you on a journey, too, becoming huge and textured and then extremely minimal at various times on the album.
Ultimately, the EP is successful with economically creating a concept and a mood that envelops you quickly and intensely. Although it lags slightly in what should be the climactic track, Hval manages to make a lot out of an EP, where others might not make much at all.
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