Norwegian songwriter Marit Othilie Thorvik, who you probably know as Jouska if you’re a loyal reader of HighClouds, is back with a brand-new track, “Season of Dread.” It’s the latest single from her upcoming album How Did I Wind Up Here?, which arrives in October.
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If you’ve already heard “Pierced”. and “Flower Moon,” which is already featured in our Best Songs of 2025 playlist, you’ll know this record is shaping up to be something really special.
The newest single, “Season of Dread,” is a slow-burning, dusky song that sits heavy with emotion, capturing what it feels like to be weighed down by depression. As Jouska explains: “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.”
The album itself was written between 2022 and 2024 across New York, Los Angeles, and Oslo, at a time when, as she puts it, everything in her life felt uncertain. The songs reflect that sense of drifting, of not quite recognizing your own life, while moving between fragile, hazy soundscapes and moments of clarity.
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