Source: Radio New Zealand
Musician Hanne Jøstensen now lives on the coast in Island Bay, Wellington, but grew up on a tiny remote island in Norway.
She has just released a song ‘Lighthouse’ which has a very personal connection as her grandfather was lighthouse keeper on the island of Sula, off the northwest coast of Norway.
“My dad grew up in the lighthouse, or the residence, and I grew up just down from it.
. It was about 250 people living there when I grew up there. It was about one and a half kilometres of road, no cars, no trees, and only accessible by boat.”
She wanted to honour the people of the island in the song, she told RNZ’s Sunday Morning .
“I know people from my island who have lost loved ones in the waters out there. And I felt, I did feel I had the social license to write about this.
“But I also felt it wasn’t just my story to tell. And I didn’t want my song to be released out into the world, and then it would bring up memories or impact people that I care about in a negative way.”
She performed the song in the church on the island on a visit two years’ ago, she says.
“I could see the lighthouse from behind the piano. And I could see the rooftop of my childhood home that my dad built. And my grandparents were buried outside in the graveyard.
“I don’t know, there was this love in the room. And I felt it was okay.”
When it came to recording ‘Lighthouse’ in Wellington, a pair of hand-knitted woollen socks given to her on the island helped her tap into the feeling of the song, she says.
“It’d been a long day, and both [engineer] Lee Prebble and I were tired. And I wanted to do the vocals for the ‘Lighthouse’. So, I took my shoes off, and I had brought my socks, and I put them on.
“And I just channelled that feeling I had at that concert. And I was just visualising the landscape. And I sang the song…I just sang it. And that is what you hear on the recording. That was the take.”
‘Lighthouse’ begins with the lyrics in her Norwegian dialect and then in English for the body of the song, she says.
“The song is a tribute to the resilience of coastal people living by the coast. But it’s a song about hope and a reminder that there’s a safe path, I think, through rough waters.”
The song also serves as a document to a disappearing way of life, she says.
“The fact that I’m opening in Norwegian, it’s not just Norwegian, it’s my dialect, which is quite distinct.
“And it also felt significant doing that because the school is closed down now. There’s no kids growing up there anymore. And I felt like it felt important to document the opening in my dialect while it still exists.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
