Kari Rueslåtten’s forthcoming studio album, “To The North”, is inspired by the dramatic landscapes of northern latitudes and will evoke imagery in listeners’ minds akin to the dark, brooding visual scenes of film and TV’s “Nordic Noir” genre.
“To the North” is a follow up to last year´s successful ”Time to Tell” album, and this time Kari Rueslåtten has brought a darker–edged atmosphere to her acoustic, melancholic Norwegian folk. She has taken inspiration from Norwegian and Celtic folk music, along with artists such as Loreena McKennitt, Tom Waits and Emmylou Harris. ”To The North” is the Trondheim based singer´s 6th studio release and includes her stunning cover version of The Byrds´ hit song, “Turn, Turn, Turn”. The album is due to be released on 22nd October.
On this album, Kari Rueslåtten has created a soundtrack of the North, which bring herself, and her listeners, back “home”. However, as Rueslåtten explained, she also regards the North as a state of mind.
“I´m interested in creating emotions in the listener, and mental resting places that allow people to close their eyes and transcend to a different environment”, she said. “For me, I like music that creates images in my head that unfold into new stories and new worlds, and invariably these are my home, and the landscapes of the North”.
The album was recorded in the UK at Liverpool´s Grammy Award winning Parr Street Studios. All the tracks were recorded live, providing an organic element to the recording, which has produced a more vital sounding result.
Rueslåtten summed up her time in the studio as “a special, magical week”. She added, “Knowing that some really famous bands have made massive albums here, such as Coldplay´s Parachutes, gave me some trepidation, but the studio is so welcoming and homely that I felt relaxed straight away. The musicians really put their heart and soul into my music, and in fact we had quite an emotional last day of recording”.
Rueslåtten, formally lead singer with The 3rd and the Mortal, is also a member of The Sirens, the group formed from her musical collaboration with Anneke van Giersbergen (ex The Gathering) and Liv Kristine (ex Theatre of Tragedy). The Sirens toured Europe and Latin America in 2014/15. Rueslåtten said of her travels, ”I have loved my time travelling to so many places, but Latin America has been very special, visiting for the first time in 2014. In some ways I have felt immediately at home there. There are many differences, of course, but I have certainly felt connected to the fantastic people and marvellous landscapes of the region”.
Rueslåtten is planning a solo-tour in 2015/16 and is very much looking forward to presenting the songs of “To the North” to a live audience and expects to visit several places in Norway, Europe and Latin-America.
All songs on the new album are written by Kari Rueslåtten, except Turn, Turn, Turn written by Pete Seeger/Book of Ecclesiastes. The songs are arranged by and recorded live in Parr Street studios by Kari Rueslåtten with musicians Jostein Ansnes, Richard Turvey, Steve Pilgrim, Martyn Campbell, Frode Flemsæter and Mat Walklate. The album is produced by Jostein Ansnes, and mixed by Jostein Ansnes and Jo Ranheim in Øra Studio.
LIVE DATES:
24/10/2015 NO Trondheim
29/10/2015 NO Oslo
19/11/2015 DE Frankfurt
20/11/2015 DE Marburg
21/11/2015 DE Leipzig
03/12/2015 NL Zoetermeer
04/12/2015 DE Berlin
05/12/2015 DE Küsten - Reitze, Nordlys Musikk
