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Josefin Winther (Norway) – Walking home (single)

Josefin Winther is one of those artists who get a lot of exposure in these pages but it is fully justifiable. She’s a skilful song writer and performer, capable of writing compelling work in both Norwegian and English.

Last time out she released her version (in English) of a song, ‘Silent Storm’ she had written for her cousin to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014.

In that case she rearranged what had been a piano-based song for acoustic guitar. This time she puts the guitar away to play piano on ‘Walking home’ and, beneficially for us, sticks to English. (I’ve no complaint whatsoever about her Norwegian songs by the way it’s just that it’s always good to ‘get’ the nuances, which you can’t always do by reading a Google translation).

Introducing ‘Silent Storm’ she wrote that it took her years before she even thought about singing the song herself. This time, she wrote ‘Walking home’ in 2016, and ever since then she’s been waiting for the right occasion to release it. “Finally the day is here” she says, without going into detail.

I wonder how many other undiscovered gems she has in the locker? (That’s a bit of a pun, she’s a basketball player).

The song seems to concern regret and missed opportunities. Delivered at a measured pace with no surprises and to a simple ear pleasing melody (how can just two piano notes be so satisfying?), it’s a delightful little ballad, of the type I often observe should really be in a film score. A Disney princess film. Frozen III, perhaps, since that’s the subject of debate right now.

Am I doing the job of the film studio sync people, or what?

As is often the case Josefin is aided by her usual crew, including Ronny Yttrehus on guitar here, and Tom Hell who arranged the strings, while the producer is Jonas Kroon, who is becoming a regular feature in NMC for his work with Marte Eberson, Löv, Sol Heilo and many others.

Don’t just listen to this once. Keep coming back to it. In its own little way it is quite lovely and you will just know you are going to hear it in a film one day, when someone in La La Land realises that the day is finally here.

In early December she is playing three gigs, what she calls sacristy, as all three are in churches, in Vidaråsen, about 70km south of Oslo, in Oslo itself and in Bergen.

Any chance of a gig in the UK, Josefin?

Find her on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josefinwinther

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JosefinWinther Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josefinwinther/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josefinwinther/

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