‘Sun, Moon, Stars’ offers the biggest moment of reprieve from the upcoming album’s thematic weight. Gloriously arranged with silvery strings and elegiac horns that subtly build alongside the song’s swelling current, it finds Jakobsen singing through a storm and coming out the other side thanks to someone who has become a bedrock of her life, singing “You are the reason I am alive”.

It is also graced by harmonies from her fellow Norwegian, the legendary Ane Brun. “A big part of why I wanted her to sing on this song in particular is because a lot of the influence I have from Ane is in it,” Jakobsen says. “The style of the guitar, the strings, it just felt like it was a nice nod to how she’s inspired me, so to have her sing on it felt like a full circle moment. From the 16 year old Siv singing Ane’s ‘Rubber & Soul’ in a high school recital, to waiting for Ane outside her gig in Boston as an aspiring songwriting student and mega fan of 22, to becoming colleagues and friends and singing together on ‘Sun, Moon, Stars’ over a decade later.”
 
Speaking more on the release of the new single Jakobsen said: “‘Sun, Moon, Stars’ was written in November, a good few years ago. I remember humming the melody and working out the lyrics whilst out walking on a particularly dreary, dark and wet evening. Inspired by my least favourite month of the year and the heaviness I tend to feel during it, as well as the beauty and hope I’ve found in a companion that has the ability to pull me out of the dreariest corner of my mind, even during the darkest month of the year.”

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Sharp yet surreal new single ‘Tangerine’ is told from the perspective of someone who feels helpless, disposable and worthless. “I imagine this person trapped in a house, needing help and not being able to ask, then locking eyes with a neighbour and silently asking for help they’ll never get,” Jakobsen says.

Lyrically inspired by the work of Japanese author Haruki Murakami, Siv Jakobsen’s stronghold of lyrical imagery is undoubtable. [“I’m a tangerine, peel me / Throw me in the sink, Leave me there to stink / I’m a tangerine, squeeze me, Let me drip down your lip”] Siv sings over a serene arrangement of hushed acoustic guitars, soft electronics and synths courtesy of Marcus Hamblett (Laura Marling, James Holden) and bass clarinet from Emma Gatrill (This Is The Kit, Lucy Rose).

Speaking more on the lyrical inspiration behind ‘Tangerine’, Jakobsen said: “I imagined someone who was held against their own will inside a run of the mill suburban house, looking out from the front room and willing for someone to come let them out. This someone is mentally stuck, a deer in headlights, scared and frozen. Not wanting to stay but unable to leave – worthless in another’s world, like a carefully peeled, squashed and tossed tangerine.”

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Throughout her career, Siv Jakobsen has lived much of her life on the road, in that time supporting and touring with acts including Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Damien Jurado, José González, The Lumineers and Susanne Sundfør. New single ‘Romain’s Place’ was written in the midst of one such tour, inadvertently re-opening a door she’d previously thought firmly closed.

A starkly beautiful examination of a previous relationship haunting one’s subconscious, Jakobsen’s precise and affecting lyrics (“For every time you screamed my way / I’ve kept a bruise / All down along my spine”) are sung with a delicacy she’s now renowned for, atop a lush backdrop harps, trumpets, soaring string arrangements and Jakobsen’s intricate finger picked guitar work.

Speaking more on the lyrical inspiration behind ‘Romain’s Place’, Jakobsen said: “Right before the pandemic hit, I was on a small tour and found myself back in a city I used to call home. I hadn’t been back since I left it (and the relationship I had there) behind a good few years ago. I felt quite shocked with how my body and mind reacted to being back, and realised quickly that I had some emotional unpacking to do. I was staying with my friend Romain at the time, and for me my time in his apartment encapsulates this realisation and the start of me dealing with these ghosts from my past that had laid dormant for a while. I was so overwhelmed at the time that it felt as if I was going crazy. I really did feel haunted, as if I had jumped into a time-machine and was somehow back in the past.”

Produced by Hans Olav Settem and Simen Mitlid, mixed by Zach Hanson (Bon Iver, Hand Habits, Sylvan Esso, The Tallest Man On Earth), and featuring instrumental contributions from Emma Gatrill (This Is The Kit, Nick Cave, Lucy Rose) and Marcus Hamblett (Laura Marling, James Holden, The Staves), new album Gardening follows Jakobsen’s 2020 album A Temporary Soothing which was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy (Spelleman).

Gardening:

1. Small
2. Romain’s Place
3. Most Of The Time
4. Birthday
5. Bad By Design
6. Bad By Design (Reprise)
7. Tangerine
8. Blue
9. Sun, Moon, Stars (feat. Ane Brun)
10. Gardening
11. Gardening (Reprise)
12. The Bay

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