Siv Jakobsen is a Norwegian mystery. She has no page on Wikipedia. Her Facebook page is uninformative. Even Google struggles to find much information about the singer/songwriter who recorded her latest album, A Temporary Soothing, in the rugged beauty of Devon, UK as 2018 marched on into 2019. But a little perseverance at the Crotchety research desk threw up this autobiographical snippet:

Siv Jakobsen is a songwriter, musician and artist from Oslo, Norway. She is an avid coffee-drinker and few things excite her more than a really good cup of coffee or a really good song.

From fortherabbits

Siv’s Facebook photos tell her story better than anything else I have found. She comes across as a woman who never quite left her teenage years behind. For her, music is more than an enduring passion, it is a way of life. Or, perhaps, that is just her Facebook persona.

Siv has been touring her indie-folk songs at least since 2012, first in Norway, then in continental Europe and the UK. She released her first single in 2013 and added three albums to her catalogue between 2015 and 2020. Siv is a fan of Joni Mitchell and there are some parallels between the two musicians. Both use the acoustic guitar as their primary instrument and their compositions fall into the sophisticated indie-folk bracket. But, where Joni’s voice is thin and reedy, Siv’s is rich and round. And, where orchestral backing feels almost superfluous to Joni’s songs, atmospheric string and keyboard accompaniments are natural for Siv’s.

Here’s a playlist of all the songs on A Temporary Soothing.

This is a perfect album for these lockdown days – comforting, sumptuous and, yes, soothing. With these songs on the hi-fi you won’t want to go outside, you won’t feel the need for company and you won’t want the music to end. There is nothing temporary about this soothing balm; it’s something to treasure for as long as your ears can hear and your heart can sing.