Husmo HAV is a Norwgian quartet led by trumpeter Thomas Husmo Litleskare that imagines itself as a sonic unit cruising across the rugged Norwegian landscape in Luke Skywalker’s snow speeder. HAv means ocean in Norwegian, and this band delivers a stormy blend of ambient, post-jazz and post-rock, acoustic and electronic sounds that do flow and stream as waves..

Husmo Litleskare, known from the groups Baker Hansen and Karokh, creates his layered soundscapes with keyboards player Marte Eberson, known from the art-rock band Highasakite and her work with her father, guitarist Jon Eberson; drummer Tore Flatjord plays with world music entity Moksha and bass player-guitarist Stian Andreas Andersen works with the jazz group Lassen. But none of these musicians feel indebted to jazz legacy pr language.

Husmo HAV’s debut EP, «Ripples», was recorded over six months and serves as an introduction to this quartet aesthetics. Andreas Andersen and Flatjord set a kinetic, rock-based rhythmic patterns; Eberson intensifies the sonic mix with icy layers of vintage and futuristic electronic sounds, and above all soars the atmospheric, effects- laden trumpet of Husmo Litleskare. The best pieces here are the evocative-cinematic ones as «Galleries / Underworlds», «Light Pollution» and «Places / Names», all sketch a patient tension and color it with subtle lyricism. But I would imagine Luke Skywalker’s snow speeder journey in the icy Norwegian scenery as more bumpy, noisy and certainly more adventurous than atmospheric version of Husmo HAV. Maybe on the follow-up album.

Eyal Hareuveni

Thomas Husmo Litleskare (tp, eff), Marte Eberson (keys, p), Stian Andreas Egeland Andersen (b, bar.g); Tore Flatjord (dr, perc)