Juni Habel takes a major step forward on Evergreen In Your Mind

It's usually enacted to make their produce seem more organically unfiltered and extra real. To the point where the perceived back-to-basics bare-footed purity has the potential to disguise issues with the substance and execution of the material.

Juni Habel’s third album presents quite a different story. With tracks recorded at quiet corners of Habel’s home alongside the school where she works, Evergreen In Your Mind certainly fits the back-to-the-roots ethos by having been created far from the and slick modern machinations of the music business. But retreating from the bustle and noise of urban environments isn’t a one-off excursion for Habel.

The singer and guitarist has always sought inspiration from the natural richness of her native Norway, and there are sections amidst the eleven uniformly strong songs on Habel’s quietly powerful, startlingly authoritative third album (her second on Todmorden’s justifiably esteemed modern folk imprint Basin Rock) where it’s hard not to drift into visions of hills, mountains, fjords and boundless forests dominated by evergreen pine trees. Consequently, Evergreen In Your Mind isn’t just steered or shaped by inspiration from the nature and the impulse to seek shelter from busy city environs in spaces that are better suited for reflective contemplation; the album – characterised by an alluringly cloudy, somewhat dreamlike sound – gives every impression of having been carved from the very elements of the natural world that fed into these songs.

Deftly weaving in sparse additional accompaniments (a hint of bass, piano and pedal steel, table legs and handclaps utilised as impromptu percussion), Evergreen In Your Mind squeezes a considerable amount of different tones and shades from what is at its core a recording of solo performances for voice and finger-picked acoustic guitar. The more extrovertedly assertive material (such as the beautifully devotional opener “Another High”, interspersed with flashes of electric guitar) creates the strongest impression initially, but it’s the murkier, more mysterious tunes – the brooding “Statues” with its suggestion of impending danger, the restlessly churning “Tessa”, the haunting drift of “Sage” – that ultimately resonate the strongest, and provide the most undeniable proof of just how far Habel’s ability to conjure powerfully evocative moods has developed since 2023’s Carvings. Elsewhere, the brightly hued, glistening instrumental “Pearl Cloud Song” brings to mind the richly textured, rhythmically robust instrumentals of late, great Michael Chapman, whilst the appropriately titled, wordlessly hummed glide of “Gitarhum” (translating to ‘guitar hum’) evokes echoes of the unsettling depths of Nick Drake’s Pink Moon.

"Where’d you think you’re going with that stride?", Habel enquiries playfully on “Stand So Still”, one of the album’s more content and lighter moments. Judging by the often mesmerising, genuinely timeless and deeply resonant Evergreen In Your Mind (which ultimately adds up to far more than the sum of its highly commendable parts, especially if ingested in one uninterrupted, focused sitting), Habel’s own steps are inching ever closer to a comprehensive mastery of the folk song format.