On the occasion of the release of the album ‘Mother’, which we reviewed on 28th January (https://www.nordicmusiccentral.com/all-news-and-reviews/highasakite-norway-mother-album/), Highasakite will premiere the film ‘In Somnium’ in Oslo on Thursday 17th February.
Ingrid Helene Håvik got the idea to create something visual that goes beyond the traditional music video, and landed on something more in the way of a short film format. She invited Arild Østin Ommundsen (Director of Mongoland, Monster Thursday, Now it´s Dark, etc.) to the table, after which it was decided that he would make his own take on the album music in short film form. Now, the result, ‘In Somnium’ will be presented for the first time in Oslo.
Ingrid said at the time of the album’s press release that ‘Mother’ “is more than an album” without elaborating. I speculated at the time that it might signify some form of film or representation through another medium as I have felt for some time they were heading in that direction.
So I’ll take another punt at what it means. In Somnium translates from Latin as ‘In a dream’. Somnium is, inter alia, also the title of a scientific fantasy in Latin by Johannes Kepler; a brand name for the anti-anxiety drug ‘lorazepam’; a video game; a 7-hour long album by the ambient musician Robert Rich; the nickname of a guitarist from the Finnish extreme metal bands Finntroll and Impaled Nazarene; a video game; a fictional card game and another short film from 2017 made by a group called Fiskekutter.
You never know with Ingrid. The film could be connected in some way or other with any of these things, or to none at all. If push came to shove I’d opt for the simple Latin translation or the drug.
‘In Somnium’ will be shown at Vega Kino in Oslo on 17 February at 18.00 hours. Before the film, Ingrid, Trond Bersu and Arild Østin Ommundsen will conduct a short Q&A where there will also be opportunities to ask questions from the audience and they will be further available for comments / interviews after the screening.
