Singer PJ Harvey talks about dead calves being hung in the forks of ash trees facing east, a warrior named Elvis and other pagan rituals of her childhood.
Polly Jean Harvey, 54, who calls herself PJ Harvey, has become a highly respected singer and songwriter since the 1990s with her unruly, poetic indie rock. On albums like “To Bring You My Love” she dealt with topics such as sex and female identity, and was always more of a work of art than a companion. She experienced a surge in popularity in 2011 with “Let England Shake”, on which she dealt with politics and history. With “I Inside the Old Year Dying” Harvey has now achieved one of her greatest works. Using a new type of folk music, she tells stories about youthful rites of passage, combining historical instruments and the dialect of her southern English homeland with contemporary production methods. She is now presenting the album, which is one of the pop events of the year, live at two concerts in Berlin.