The duo of Norwegian musician/writer Jenny Hval and longtime collaborator Håvard Volden, Lost Girls takes their art into more meditative and sensuous territory. Their debut, 2018′s Feeling EP, presented a pair of alternately contemplative and nervy tracks that melded droning guitars and electronics with Hval’s alternately spoken and sung vocals, a combination they expanded on with 2021′s improvisatory full-length Menneskekollektivet.
Prior to Lost Girls, multi-instrumentalist Volden — a member of Hval’s live band for over a decade — performed in her own band Rockettothesky. The pair also worked together as Nude on Sand, issuing a 2012 self-titled album of acoustic-based experiments. They started fresh with Lost Girls, adopting the project’s name from the title of Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s 2006 graphic novel. Their debut EP, March 2018′s Feeling, included a staple from Hval’s live show and a song Volden had been tinkering with for years before the singer’s vocals provided the finishing touch. To make their first album, Lost Girls worked in Trondheim’s Øra studios, where they improvised based on their initial song sketches. The exploratory Menneskekollektivet (Norwegian for “human collective”) arrived in March 2021 on Smalltown Supersound. ~ Heather Phares