Husky Rescue

Husky Rescue
Husky Rescue at El Camino Helsinki studios in March 2011. From left to right: Johanna Kalén, Marko Nyberg, Antony Bentley
Background information
Origin	Helsinki, Finland
Genres	Electronic, folktronica, trip hop, ambient, downtempo
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Catskills, Minty Fresh, El Camino
Website	www.husky-rescue.com
Members	Marko Nyberg Johanna Kalén Antony Bentley
Past members	Reeta-Leena Vestman Ville Riippa Anssi Sopanen Miika Colliander

Husky Rescue are a Finnish electronic music band from Helsinki, formed in 2002. The band consists of Marko Nyberg, Johanna Kalén and Antony Bentley.

Husky Rescue was formed by Marko Nyberg, who began composing under the name in 2002, wanting to create cinematic music influenced by film, photography and painting. He has counted film director David Lynch and French composer Erik Satie among his influences. When recording the band's debut album Country Falls, Nyberg recorded around twenty musicians and singers for use on the album—each of them a good friend of Nyberg's and all Helsinki-based. As Nyberg puts it himself:

"Every track is designed to be a warm breeze to counter the chill of daily life, whether you live in cold climes or not. All moments from life become part of the music. Husky Rescue reflects our background in Helsinki where the winter nights are so cold and long while the summer is hot and short, but oh so sweet. It's melancholic music but there is always hope. Husky Rescue's music is like the first snow on the ground when you can still see the green grass through the snow. It's like spring's sunbeam after the long, dark, sunless winter time."

Husky Rescue's line-up from 2002 to 2010 consisted of Nyberg (bass), Reeta-Leena Vestman (née Korhola, vocals), Ville Riippa (keyboards), Maria Ilmoniemi (keyboards), Anssi Sopanen (drums) and Miika Colliander (guitar). The band's debut album Country Falls was released worldwide in October 2004 on Catskills Records and in the US on 12 April 2005 on Minty Fresh.

The cinematic sceneries found on the debut were further developed on 2007's Ghost Is Not Real which turned up the sonic experimentation and detailed production without sacrificing the catchy, pop aesthetic. Nyberg's sense of dynamics and tendency towards delicacy on the album were described by Pitchfork Media as "an imagined collaboration, perhaps, between Ingmar Bergman and Jean-Pierre Jeunet".

Learning about a reported UFO sighting near his residence just outside central Helsinki further turned Nyberg's interest towards the nature, thus propelling a new wave of inspiration. He saw hope and beauty in the Northern surroundings, and embarked on a solitary songwriting trip to Lapland. Heavily featuring Jari Salo, one half of the duo Pepe Deluxé and a long-time friend of Marko's, Husky Rescue's third album Ship of Light was released in January 2010. The album was met with positive reviews in the media, such as The Guardian giving it four out of five stars and comparing the sound to "the kind of adult pop that Air were promising us with their first album", or The Sunday Times naming the album CD of the week and rating it four stars. Ben Hogwood of Music OMH remarked that the album continued in the tradition of their previous albums with "beautifully icy string colours" and "imaginative touches of orchestration."