Highasakite - Silent Treatment (2014)

Highasakite make pop music, but an adventurous brand of indie pop full of contrasts. Once you hear Highasakite you’ll wonder how you ever got by without them, theirs is an endless sound oscillating between density and spaciousness. Silent Treatment is filled with radical texture and startling immediacy, Ingrid Helene Håvik’s idiosyncratic vocals perfectly joins the albums eccentricity and accessibility.

The band now all reside in Oslo however the origins of the group can be found at the Trondheim Jazz Conservatory, where singer and songwriter Håvik met drummer Trond Bersu and began to write, record and perform together. However, the pair felt that they needed an extra something to give their performances the sound they desired. As a result, Øystein Skar on synthesizers was added, before the more recent arrivals of Marte Eberson, also on synths, and Kristoffer Lo on guitar, flugabone and percussion. All of this has combined to give the band a richer texture and more potent sound.

Silent Treatment, produced by acclaimed Norwegian producer, Kåre Chr. Vestrheim, is perceived by Håvik as a very romantic album,, with many of its themes existing in the realm of relationships behind closed doors. Yet for all the lyrical depth and layered compositions, the one thing that Highasakite do exceedingly well is enveloping choruses, which instantly take root and resonate, perhaps no more so than in lead single Since Last Wednesday.

Håvik cites Mary Margaret O’Hara, Fever Ray and Diamanda Galás as some of her favourite musicians as well as being touched by Bulgarian vocal choirs. Many other non-musical reference points have helped inform Silent Treatment such as Håvik’s time in New York and Istanbul.

TRACKLIST
01. Lover Where Do You Live ?
02. Since Last Wednesday
03. Leaving No Traces
04. Hiroshima
05. My Only Crime
06. I The Hand Grenade
07. Darth Vader
08. Iran
09. The Man on the Ferry
10. Science & Blood Tests