Himmelskip - Salongrifle (Die With Your Boots On)

The Slow Music Movement
Aug 20
2 min read

I like it when jazz cats go rogue and start dabbling in other genres. For one they often have that extra bit of instrumental skill, not to mention their improvisatory ability - which often needs reigning in a bit, but can lead to some magic moments in genres where freewheeling is less practised.

Off the top of my head I can't think of many jazzers veering into instrumental country music so I'm doubly intrigued by Himmelskip, whose members guitarist Simen Jakobsen Harstad, the pedal steel playing Elias Wallumrød Orning and rhythm section: Torjus Gravir Klykken and Tobias Rønnevigwho met at The Norwegian Academy of Music and are heading south west to do just that.

Himmelskip's four members walk on a sunny path, wearing jackets and scarves. Trees and a clear blue sky form the background, creating a relaxed vibe.

Their new EP, a teaser to their forthcoming LP due out on November 14th for the aspirationally named, Die With Your Boots On Records, starts off unassumingly enough with some widescreen guitar atmospherics that creep cautiously through the speakers even evoking the Middle East at times, before the track announces itself formally half way through with an R&B flourish, encouraging the boys to get busy with some melancholic lone riding Americana, which then proceeds to flirt shamelessly between spaghetti western soundtrack and thinking rather than head banging rock. Or something like that.

Things don't get any stylistically clearer with "Carl B" as bluegrass meets soft rock meets rock opera with added Celtic fiddle and a lysergic injection or two. Whoever Carl B is, he's quite a tripper. "Reven" rounds things off, kicking off with some late night, suspenseful bass and guitar work that sounds like it's from a vintage private eye flick, before the slide guitar adds an Americana stamp, encouraging the drums to turn up for work but which decide not to get their hands too dirty. It's a nice slice of microdosed bastard blues with cinematic vibes. The EP is fresh and I await the LP with interest.