THIS WEEK I’M LISTENING TO...KALANDRA – Live From Lafayette (By Norse Music)

Originally coming together in 2011 in Liverpool, where vocalist Katerine Stenbekk was studying, and taking time to hone their craft, Norwegian / Swedish quartet KALANDRA celebrate their fifteenth birthday with the release of their first live album. ‘Live From Lafayette’ was recorded in London on 21 September 2024 at, unsurprisingly, Lafayette in Kings Cross, an intimate venue which captures the band at their charismatic best. There’s something so ethereal about the band’s music that allows it to encompass so many emotions and appeal to such a wide range of listeners, and ‘Live From Lafayette’ is an utterly captivating body of work, with many of the fifteen songs on offer being enchanting slow-burners, building up from the simplest of refrains to eventually whip up a storm. Opener ‘I Am’ is one such instance , although later in the set the utterly hypnotising ‘Segla’ is pretty much the perfect example of how to build a song from the least assuming of openings to a breath-taking and almost relentless climax.

I suppose Nordic folk metal is the tag lazy journalists would throw their way but the best music is probably the hardest to categorise and Kalandra’s songs work on so many levels. But the common detonator is the seeming fragility of Stenbekk’s voice working in perfect harmony with the guitars – sometimes ostensibly passive and sometimes beguilingly aggressive – of Jogeir Daae Mæland and Florian B.D. Winter and the steadfast percussion of Oskar Johnsen Rydh.

This is a band whose popularity is growing exponentially, yet the fact that on the night they played to a full house seems to surprise the musicians at times. “Wow, we sold out!,” says Stenbekk quite humbly after the first song, barely concealing the surprise in her voice. At a later point, when someone from the crowd shouts “we love you,” she comes back with “we love you too. I mean, I can’t believe we filled this place up. That’s incredible.” Unassuming, yet incredibly talented, after fifteen years and endless touring this is certainly a band with their feet still firmly on the ground but an extremely bright future.

Video clip: ‘Segla’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-G_6u10mnk

John Tucker February 2026