Jouska – Season Of Dread

Today, Jouska—the alias of Norway-based songwriter Marit Othilie Thorvik—shares her new single, “Season of Dread,” from the forthcoming album How Did I Wind Up Here?, out October 17 via Koke Plate.

Following previously released singles “Pierced.” and “Flower Moon,” the delicate, dusky track unfolds in a slow, deliberate build, delivering candid lyricism that captures the unyielding weight of depression.

Reflecting on the song, Thorvik shares:”I wrote this song when everything felt heavy. It was like being stuck inside a winter that wouldn’t end, a season of dread, both emotionally and physically. I was moving through the days with a constant sense of unease, trying to hold it together but always on the edge of unraveling… This song came out of that place, a time when I felt completely out of sync with the world, like winter had stretched on endlessly and no one else seemed to notice.”

Written between late 2022 and 2024 between New York City, Los Angeles, and Oslo, How Did I Wind Up Here? came at a time when everything was thrown into question for Jouska. The songs reflect on drifting until you cannot recognize your life. “I’ve always been emotional, anxious, and melancholic by nature, but during that time everything felt especially heavy,” she remembers. “I was caught in cycles of anxiety, depression, and self-doubt. I couldn’t seem to make the present work — and when I looked back, I felt grief over all the years I felt had slipped away. The past and the present blurred. I didn’t feel like I was moving forward — I was just stuck inside myself.” Across the record, there is a push-pull between conflicting desires for attention and disappearance.

Moving away from the polished electronic sounds of her past work, on this record she leans into more fragile and exposed textures, inspired by bands like The Radio Dept., Beach House, and Slowdive. Creating a soft-focussed soundscape of melancholic dream pop, it leans into the records themes of grief, guilt, shame and emotional distance, yet still provides brief flashes of clarity and small moments of acceptance.

Blending dream pop and trip-hop into fluid, hazy, and bittersweet forms, How Did I Wind Up Here? marks the start of a new era for Jouska, following the release of her 2023 album, Suddenly My Mind Is Blank, which drew praise and went on to win a Spellemann Award (Norway’s equivalent of a GRAMMY). Guided by her intuition, Jouska’s latest offers a series of vulnerable, hushed inner monologues cresting over relaxed and shimmering arrangements.

Listen to “Season of Dread” above and stay tuned for more from Jouska ahead of the release of How Did I Wind Up Here? arriving October 17 via Koke Plate.

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