Norwegian band Highasakite, whose EP, In and out of weeks, came out last week here in the US, will be making their New York debut with a pair of shows. First, they will be on the LES at Mercury Lounge on Wednesday, March 20 at 8PM and it will cost you $10. The following night, Thursday, March 21 they will be over in Brooklyn at Glasslands. It happens at 10PM and will cost you $10. See below for full details.
Tall Ships
Wednesday, March 20
Mercury Lounge
217 E Houston Street
New York, NY
Doors: 6:30 pm
Tickets $10
21+
Highasakite
Luxury Liners
Thursday March 21
Glasslands Gallery
289 Kent Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
Doors: 8:30 PM
Tickets $10
21+
Highasakite inhabits their own rare musical landscape, a place of long dark shadows, sudden flashes of glittering light, brooding silences and unexpected explosions of fierce percussion. Ingrid Håvik’s surrealistic lyrics and ardent vocals float out of another time and place, drawing you down into the breathless maelstrom created by her band mates. Progressive rock, Norwegian folk music, jazzy tribal drumming, spaced out synthesizers, zither and autoharp come together to create a deep, mysterious resonance, echoing the sounds your hear in the midnight dreams that often seem more real than anything you experience during your waking hours. Imagine Phil Spector producing Cluster, with a dash of Radiohead on the side, and you’ll have the general idea, but Highasakite brings their own singular vision to the party.
The band took flight when Håvik and drummer Trond Bersu met while studying jazz at the Trondheim Jazz Conservatory. They started as a duo, with Bersu on drums and Håvik singing and playing zither. After a few gigs, they enlisted producer Thomas Dahl (Krøyt) to help them capture the sounds they were hearing in their heads. “We wanted to combine the rhythm patterns I was composing with 60s American pop, Norwegian folk music and synthesizers,” Bersu says. With Dahl producing and playing bass and guitar, and their friend Øystein Skar contributing his synthesizer wizardry, they worked for six months to produce a collection of songs cryptically titled All that floats will rain. This was an immediate success and Highasakite was named the best new act of 2012 by many Norwegian magazines and newspapers.
With their reputation in Norway secure, Highasakite is setting their sights on the American market with In and out of weeks. The five-song mini-album will introduce America to the band’s highly emotional music and their distinctive approach to songwriting and arranging. Tribal drums and throbbing, euphoric synthesizer open “Son of a Bitch,” a mid tempo rocker that alternates between Håvik’s propulsive, tongue twisting verses and wordless trills, underscored by Dahl’s swooping bass. “In and out of weeks” is a tense, moody ballad full of long sustained guitar notes, vast washes of spacey keyboards and dense layers of skittering percussion. Håvik’s somnambulant vocals capture the muzzy feeling of a sleepless night.
