Evoking shades of Noah Gundersen and The Tallest Man on Earth, Norwegian up-and-comer Jarle Skavhellen presents ruminative, lilting folk to captivate the senses. In this case, the atmospheric layers of sound that Skavhellen introduces to listeners in ‘Coming Home’ represents a soft goodbye. Skavhellen tells For Folk’s Sake, “I wrote this when visiting my grandma at the cancer ward. She was tired of all the treatments and was missing my grandpa who passed a few years earlier. But she always kept a lovely dark humour and joked, ‘He won’t wait forever, you know.’ So it’s not really a sad song. It’s more about acceptance and letting go.”
Lending an ear to the track, it’s easy to hear death’s influence, as well as Skavhellen’s matured view on its place in the natural process. This goes even without the map that the artist provides us with his statement above, although knowing ‘Coming Home’ as an ode to his grandparents and their love makes it even that much more poignant of an arrangement. Musically, Skavhellen brings some interesting innovations to the forefront without overshadowing the song’s message, especially in the jingles and jangles of its closing couple of minutes.
Words by: Jonathan Frahm (@jfrahm_)
Photo: Synne Arskaug