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SILENT NORTHS
Songs for what remains
The story
My relationship with songwriting goes back to the early 1990s, when I first began developing songs, melodies and musical ideas, some in Norwegian, others with English lyrics. Much of it has followed me quietly through the years, sometimes as finished songs, sometimes simply as fragments waiting to find their place.
I have always been drawn to the more melancholic side of music. Not melancholy as sadness in itself, but as a space for reflection, a way of giving form to experiences that can be difficult to describe when life changes around us.
Guitar and piano have remained at the centre of that process. Most of the songs begin with one of these instruments, with arrangements deliberately kept understated so that the melody, the words and the spaces between them are allowed to carry the song.
Many ideas have emerged while travelling, often in moments when there has been time to observe, think and simply let things settle. Some have remained with me for years before eventually finding their way into a melody or a line of text.
Over the years, the writing has increasingly returned to the different stages of life, the people who enter it, those who gradually disappear from it, the memories that remain, the passage of time, and the sometimes unexpected ways in which we change ourselves.
Decades after those first songs and ideas began to take shape, some of these musical threads have now come together in Silent Norths and the album Long After Us.
Silent Norths is therefore not so much a beginning as a continuation, a place for music and words that have developed over time, and for thoughts that might otherwise have remained unspoken.
Henning Møllerløkken
This is from the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi,
Recording a Norwegian song that has yet to be released. Grateful for the wonderful help from Kjell Westby, who runs the studio and has also mixed the song.
Behind the songs
Many of the melodies and lyrics have taken shape while travelling through Norway. I have spent a great deal of time on the road, travelled by snowmobile through winter landscapes, and experienced the country from the sea. These journeys have given me time and space to observe, listen and think.
Northern Norway in particular has been a lasting source of inspiration. The landscapes, the silence, the distances, and perhaps just as importantly, the character and mentality of the people I have met along the way, have all found their way into melodies, words and ideas.
Some of the photographs on this website were taken during these journeys. They show places and moments that have stayed with me, and in different ways belong to the same story as the music.
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From a snowmobile trip across the far north in April 2018.
Songwriting and songs in progress
Late-night recording of a Norwegian song at a studio in Randaberg.
Norway is home to many outstanding musicians, and I have learned a great deal from listening to and being inspired by their work.
Silent Norths is first and foremost a studio project, with the focus on songwriting, recording and the music itself. New songs are still being written and recorded, and while there are currently no plans for live performances, the possibility of playing live may be explored in the future.
Good atmosphere in the studio.
For me, songwriting is about finding the right feeling, trusting the first idea, and then allowing the song to find its own direction. I believe it is equally important to listen to good advice and honest feedback from talented people along the way. Sometimes a different perspective can reveal something in a song that I had not heard myself. In the end, my approach is simply to give each song the time and space it needs to reach its own potential, without losing the feeling that started it in the first place.
Echoes of memory
Kilpisjärvi, Finland, with the Norwegian mountains on the horizon.
A beautiful summer day in Northern Troms.
A beautiful autumn day in Lyngen.
The photographs from these journeys would never have existed without the friends who have welcomed me along the way, and whose hospitality has made it possible to experience places I might otherwise never have seen.
A special thank you goes to my friends Vidar and Tom, who always make me feel welcome. Together we have travelled by road and snowmobile, setting out on remarkable journeys across the far north. Their generosity, friendship and knowledge of the landscape have become an important part of these experiences.
There is something about travelling into the northern landscape that seems to create space in my mind. Melodies can appear almost without warning as we move through the scenery, sometimes as only a few notes or a rhythm, sometimes with the beginning of a line of text. I rarely know at that moment what they will become.
Some of the photographs on this website were taken during these journeys. For me, they are more than memories of places we have visited. They belong to the same experiences from which some of the music has emerged.