Highasakite

Highasakite surfaced from Norway in 2012, merging frigid electronic textures and intense indie pop with grounded rhythmic rock elements. Following their initial release, the group secured broad recognition through Silent Treatment in 2014, an album that claimed the top position on Norwegian charts and held a spot in the Top 40 for twenty-four months. Camp Echo arrived two years later as their second chart-topper and set the stage for Uranium Heart, which surfaced in 2019.

Vocalist Ingrid Håvik crossed paths with drummer Trond Bersu while both pursued jazz studies at the Trondheim Jazz Conservatory. The pair launched the project as a duo before enlisting producer Thomas Dahl to handle bass and guitar and adding Øystein Skar on synthesizer. The expanded lineup devoted six months to shaping their first album. Riot Factory Records issued All That Floats Will Rain across Norway in early 2012, where its compact, charged indie rock approach drew favorable notices from critics.

Once the record appeared, the band began live performances and recruited Marte Eberson on synthesizer plus Kristoffer Lo on guitar, percussion, flugabone, and tuba to broaden the sound. Highasakite appeared at several prominent festivals throughout 2012, among them Øya in Norway and Iceland Airwaves. While preparing new material, they approached the American market in early 2013 with the In and Out of Weeks EP on Propeller Records, a set that gathered the opening five tracks from All That Floats Will Rain.

The group then entered the studio alongside Norwegian producer Kåre Christoffer Vestrheim (Ida Jenshus, Katzenjammer) to track their second album. Silent Treatment reached listeners in 2014 and became a major domestic success, ascending to number one while earning Highasakite a Spellemannprisen for Pop Group of the Year. Camp Echo followed in 2016 as a more politically oriented effort that included the singles “Someone Who’ll Get It” and “Golden Ticket.” That year the band also performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert.

The standalone single “5 Million Miles” surfaced in 2017, succeeded the next year by “Out of Order,” the opening track from their fourth album Uranium Heart, which arrived in January 2019.