Artist K.óla has made strides in her native Iceland since her early teenage years. After participating in the local band circuit, musician Katrín Helga Ólafsdóttir embarked on her solo venture K.óla in 2019, releasing the Iceland Music Awards-nominated Allt verður alltílæ via the post-dreifing collective.
While studying music in Denmark, K.óla began work on her most recent album Sex on a cloud. Following up on the release, she published the complementary album Skiptir mig máli just a few months later. The latter includes the same songs, albeit with Icelandic lyrics.
Now, K.óla is set to publish a string of live studio sessions featuring music from her latest album — the first of which is premiered right here on the Grapevine.
Only separated by the two different languages portrayed in the lyrics of her respective albums, K.óla’s live sessions came to fruition through her collaboration with sound engineer Kora Pacheco, who worked on Sex on a cloud.
“She was studying to become a ‘Tonemeister’ in The Royal Music Conservatory and wanted to try out this beautiful studio room in the school — the old DR radio house — as a concert venue. But also to also record in it,” Katrín explains.
“We planned it all almost a year in advance. I gathered a band and wrote arrangements for a string trio and an additional flute. We rehearsed in two separate groups and then all together. It was really fun to see how differently worlds of musicians work together. This project brought three sphere of music together: classical, jazz, and pop musicians,” she says.
Presenting a variation of K.óla’s latest album, she feels the live arrangements open up new interpretations to her material. “I like that a lot, that songs can have many versions,” Katrín admits. “They can be translated in new ways every time they are performed. That is also how I work normally. I have been working with a lot of new people and switching instruments so the songs always get a new life with each different person that joins me on the band. I am very happy to have captured this version with such a big band with people from all over the world,” she clarifies.
K.óla’s albums Sex on a cloud and the Icelandic equivalent Skiptir mig máli are available on streaming platforms now. The artist’s plans to release one live session per month, so stay tuned to K.óla’s Instagram and Youtube channel for updates and announcements.
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!
