I feel like I’m seeing Kalandra everywhere right now. Collaborations with Apocalyptica and Myrkur? It seems others are seeing this band’s true talent, as well. And they’re back with another album! The Other Side releases on November 13th through By Norse Music.
Kalandra come to us from Norway. They actually released a live album earlier this year called Live at Lafayette, which is also incredible. The current lineup for this new record includes Katrine Ødegård Stenbekk on vocals, Jogeir Daae Mæland on guitar and keys, Florian Bernhard Döderlein Winter on guitar, and Oskar Johnsen Rydh on drums.
I have to admit, I’ve completely fallen in love with this band’s music. They play something akin to alternative folk, maybe a bit of pop folk, maybe even a bit of progressive rock. It’s a gorgeous blend with truly haunting, ethereal vocals from Katrine, roaring guitars, incredibly emotional lyrics and performances, and bits of cinema and story. It is instantly attractive, but gets deeper the more you listen.
I just have to say that Katrine has once again delivered with the lyrics. This entire album is so heartfelt, so poetic. The record is all about dreams, both wondrous and shadowy, and this bleeds into the music with cosmic, otherworldly accents, yet also earthy, dark, deeply human candor, too. It is such a colorful album that seems to celebrate the beauty of existence, yet through the mist of dreams and pregnant meaning. It is jaw-dropping quite often.
The Other Side has ten songs and each of them is one of those tracks in which you’ll find yourself whispering, “God, I love this song.” It opens with a piece that keeps growing on me, “In the Shadows”. This song gently builds, introducing a subtle vocal rhythm, but as it progresses, the rhythm grows stronger, the emotion swells, the color explodes! It leads into “Animal”, a heavier track, especially for this band. Yet, even its primal grit, the chorus is heavenly, and the ambient portion in the middle is nuanced and gorgeous.
Two of the singles come next. “Lost in the Dark” feels like cautious steps in a strange wood, like seeking a way out. I love how spacious it is, how it bobs and hovers with a little bit of swagger, even. It is so addictive. “Let Me Be Open” is one of the most heartfelt moments on the album. Its electronica background provides subtle color and light while the song feels brutally honest, but with one’s self, if you know what I mean. The haunting percussion really seals the deal on this song. The first half ends with “Chasing Dreams”, something close to a ballad that turns dark near the end. I love how whimsical it seems, but Katrine turns up the macabre in her voice as it blooms into darkness.
The second half contains one of my favorite songs of the year. “A Ship Has Left the Shore” is the most potent song on the album; it’s like a tribute to all the people I’ve lost through the years. My parents. My grandparents. Children through miscarriage. Close relatives. Friends. All of them. It’s like a tearful farewell I could never muster myself. And it is incredibly beautiful, being just vocals and piano mostly. It is so emotional and impactful, but somehow also hopeful, like celebrating the beauty of the coming and going, of the scattering of our atoms to the sky.
Honestly, that song is such a powerful moment, it leaves your nerves singing. But then the band gives us “Beauty & the Beast”, a piece that celebrates unnerving vocal harmonies, shadowy gardens, unknowns in the moonlight world. Like venturing into someplace strange and even quirky, and the music matches the theme with lots of eccentric vocals and peculiar forces, and some pretty heavy riffs, too. It is, for lack of a better word, cool.
The final three songs are fantastic. “Descend the Stars” and the title track sort of go together. They have the same dreamy, ethereal vocal backing from Icelandic band Árstíðir. They have the same whimsy, story, and journey painted into soaring atmospheres, but ones that somehow feel hidden, quiet, and personal. They lead into the closer “Melancholic”, like passing through abstractions and colors. This song feels like a wellspring of beauty and secret specters, like apparitions hovering, like starry visions. It ends the album with dark guitars and lingering keys, and it just makes you want to listen to the record again immediately.
Kalandra keep getting better. The Other Side is sheer transcendent poetry. It is the color of life revealed by the rising sun. It is the dark hallways of night and the beings that scratch in the corners of your mind. It is wistful, accepting, evolving, understanding. Everyone needs to hear it.
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