Juni Habel Duo / Nick Jonah Davis, Sy; Gigs, The Darwin Room, Shrewsbury Library, Shrewsbury, 04/10/2026

The fifth event of Sy: Gigs fourth season featured the Norwegian singer, songwriter and guitarist Juni Habel, who was accompanied by her husband and fellow guitarist Emil Nøjgaard Petersen, originally from Copenhagen. The Scandinavian Duo were supported by the Derbyshire based guitarist and composer Nick Jonah Davis.

NICK JONAH DAVIS

Nick Jonah Davis – electric guitars, electronics

The first set came from Nick Jonah Davis who cites his influences as being folk traditions allied to elements of ambient and drone music, free improvisation and psychedelia. Since 2010 he has released six full length solo guitar albums plus a further three EPs and a vinyl single.

His latest album “Rose Delta Rising” (August 2026) represents something of a departure from his previous work and includes contributions from the rhythm section of Joe Danks (drums) and Neal Heppleston (double bass) and also from multi-instrumentalist Gayle Brogan. The album also includes string arrangements co-written by Davis and Richard Birkin.

In addition to his solo career Davis is also part of the trio MMM, a more obviously ambient project that also features Brogan plus Shropshire based musician Elizabeth Still of the band Haress, a previous visitors to Sy ; Gigs both with her band and as a solo artist.  The MMM Trio released the album “Lunistice Alignments” earlier in 2026, an album inspired by “the 2025 Major Lunar Standstill at the Calanais Stones on the Isle of Lewis”.

Davis has also recorded “Split-Electric”,  a 2016 duo album with Cambridgeshire based guitarist C Joynes.

Davis also works as an audio engineer and producer and both produced and played flute on Still’s 2023 solo album “Going For Home”. He has also worked in his capacity as an engineer on several of Joynes’ recordings.

Today’s set was a solo guitar performance that included a number of pieces from the recent “Rose Delta Rising” album.  The first of these was “Poa Kichizi”, an attractive composition that Davis has recorded more than once over the years. The tune was inspired by a visit to Tanzania and is named for a phrase in the Swahili language. Played on an electric guitar the piece revealed Davis to be a skilled finger style guitarist capable of creating interlocking melody lines, these coalescing to produce a joyously ringing guitar sound. The piece was first recorded with Joynes on the “Split-Electric” album while the most recent version features the rhythm section of Danks and Heppleston.

Also from the “Rose Delta Rising” recording “The Green Tree” was inspired by the former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green, who was obviously a primary inspiration for Davis, even though his playing these days doesn’t sound remotely like Green’s. This offered another example of Davis’ exemplary picking skills and of his command of tone and timbre. The album version again features Danks and Heppleston, who also act as the rhythm section for the revered Sheffield guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Jim Ghedi.

“Magpie On Wire” saw a change of guitar with Davis laying the new instrument on his lap and playing it with a slide to generate an atmospheric steel guitar sound. “You have to be a bit of a magpie as a guitarist” mused Davis as he explained the reasoning behind the tune’s title.

Davis reverted to his original guitar for a second Peter Green inspired piece titled “To See a Manalishi”. Green’s devil like Manalishi figure was said to represent the twin evils of fame and money and acted as the inspiration for Davis’ own composition. Today’s performance saw Davis generating layers of melody to create something of a drone effect as another of Davis’ acknowledged areas of influence came into play. The recorded version from “Rose Delta Rising” features a string arrangement to achieve a similar effect.

A second steel guitar tune was named “Goodfellow On The Riverside” after an old friend of the guitarist. This was another richly atmospheric performance that combined elements of English folk, Americana and ambient music.

Davis concluded his set with “Peter and the Lark”, another track from his latest album recording and presumably named for Green. We were promised a “spacey” performance and Davis fully delivered on that remit via the use, for the first time, of effects pedals, electronics and extended guitar techniques, in addition to that already familiar and haunting steel guitar sound.

It represented an excellent way to round off an atmospheric and consistently absorbing set in the intimate environs of the beautiful Darwin Room, now an established Sy; Gigs venue and a location that is perfectly suited to the kind of music that the series founder, Chris Taylor, likes to present.

I very much enjoyed this performance and have subsequently investigated the “Rose Delta Rising” album on Bandcamp. It’s a recording that is only available in digital and vinyl formats.

I did however treat myself to a copy of the MMM Trio CD and have enjoyed listening to it as I write. The involvement of Still, whose work I have enjoyed in the past, both with Haress and solo, was also a factor in my purchasing of this recording. Like Davis’ own “Rose Delta Rising” the MMM trio makes for evocative and enjoyable listening.

Recordings by Nick Jonah Davis can be purchased here;
https://nickjonahdavis.bandcamp.com/music

JUNI HABEL DUO

Juni Habel –lead vocals, acoustic guitar, stomp box
Emil Nøjgaard Petersen – electric guitar, backing vocals

Today’s show was the last date of the UK leg of a European tour being undertaken by the Norwegian vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Juni Habel and her husband and guitarist
Emil Nøjgaard Petersen,

Habel has released three albums of original songs,  “All Ears” (2020), “Carvings” (2023) and the more recent “Evergreen In Your Mind” (April 2026), the title of the latter inspired by a childhood growing up in the pine forests of rural Norway. She still lives a Bohemian existence in the Norwegian countryside and her songs are variously inspired by family and nature.

This evening’s set included songs from both of Habel’s albums, the majority of them sourced from the most recent release. Habel writes and sings in English and plays acoustic guitar in a style that has invited comparisons with Joni Mitchell, Vashti Bunyan and Nick Drake, among others. Today she occasionally deployed a stomp box to impart additional rhythm to selected pieces.

Habel’s guitar playing is of such a high standard that she must have no difficulties in performing unaccompanied. Nevertheless the atmospheric colours and textures provided by Petersen’s electric guitar proved to be a very welcome addition to the music and were particularly suited to the restful ambience of the Darwin Room as the light outside began to fade throughout the course of the duo’s set, helping to create a typically memorable Sy; Gigs live experience.

The duo began with “Another High”, the opening track from the “Evergreen” album and a song about summoning the creative muse. Habel’s voice was simultaneously fragile and authoritative, a beguiling blend of strength and delicacy. Musically the piece was notable for the gentle intertwining of the two guitars.

From the same recording “Colours Close to Me” was notable for Petersen’s use of a bow on the strings of his electric guitar, generating a cello like effect that combined effectively with the sounds of Habel’s voice and her cleanly picked acoustic guitar.

In between songs Habel talked about how excited the duo were to be touring in the UK. This enjoyment found further expression via the song “Fortune”, a song from “All Ears” about “feeling like the luckiest person in the world”. Habel’s relaxed and conversational vocals were again complemented by Petersen’s work with the bow.

From the “Evergreen” album the song “Stand So Still” featured a folk / Americana sound augmented by Petersen’s electric guitar embellishments, including a short instrumental solo, and off mic harmony vocals.

The title track of “Evergreen In Your Mind” referenced Habel’s childhood in the Norwegian pine forests and reminisced about she and her friends would hide out in the woods, feeling a natural affinity for their environment. Habel’s evocative lyrics conveyed a real sense of place and magic as Petersen provided instrumental bass lines via his guitar’s top strings.

“Gitarhum” was the first piece not to feature lyrics. Although essentially an instrumental it did feature Habel’s wordless vocals and also saw her deploying the stomp box as the two guitars combined to create a sonic dreamscape that was reminiscent of the sounds of John Martyn and Nick Drake, with Petersen making subtle use of slide guitar techniques. Following the performance of this piece Habel gave a shout out to Nick Jonah Davis, whose own music had occupied broadly similar territory.

From the “Carvings” album the song “Little Twirl” was about “spending time with kids” and summoned up something of the innocence of childhood with its “I follow the roses” refrain.

“Slow Tide” was a new song written in the summer of 2026, a summer in which Habel told us that she swam in the sea every day thinking “I always want to live like this”. Norway must have enjoyed the same kind of sensational hot summer as the UK. It was a song that also saw Habel demonstrating her capabilities as an instrumentalist.

A second song from the “Carvings” album “When We Awake” was said to be about “waking up and seeing the world as if for the first time”. Habel’s wistful and ethereal vocals captured something of the wonder of this experience, enhanced by the atmospheric use of the bow by Petersen.

The closing “Pearl Cloud Song”, from the “Evergreen” album was inspired by a meteorological phenomenon that is common in Norway but rarely seen in the UK. Despite its title this was in fact another instrumental featuring the use of stomp box and was a piece that really gave Habel the chance to demonstrate her finger picking skills alongside Petersen’s atmospheric use of slide. Again this was music that entered into the same kind of sonic territory as that explored previously by Davis.

As a live experience I very much enjoyed this performance from Habel and Petersen, a performance that was greatly enhanced by the environment in which it took place. The chilled out vibe of Habel’s highly personal music was perfect for the beautiful setting of the Darwin Room, the former chapel of Shrewsbury School, with dusk gradually falling outside as blissed out audience members sprawled on bean bags in front of the stage. Not me I hasten to add, chairs were also provided. I’d never have got back up again – and have you ever tried taking notes when sprawling on a bean bag?

I’ve since listened to a number of Habel’s songs on Bandcamp but found some of them rather too twee in the home listening environment, although I can appreciate their appeal to other listeners.

Personally I’m rather more drawn to the darker sonic timbres of artists like Nick Jonah Davis, and this isn’t the first time that I’ve preferred the ‘support act’ at an Sy; Gigs event, although to me this is very much in keeping with the ethos of the series and its “Music for the Curious” remit.

Purchase Juni Habel’s recordings here;
https://nickjonahdavis.bandcamp.com/music

See also;
https://www.junihabel.com/

 

 

 

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