"We never know what genre we fit into,” Katrine Stenbekk muses, earrings chiming as she tilts her head in thought. “It’s quite interesting that metalheads resonate with our sound.”
As she sits before us, delicately piecing together her thoughts, Kalandra’s frontwoman seems at odds with the metal world. Her doe-eyed, gentle demeanour is that of a nymph plucked straight out of the forest. It perfectly pairs with the band’s ethereal formula of prog-infused riffs, fluttering birdsong and mystical Nordic alt folk. Second record A Frame Of Mind, released last year, was like a series of lessons learned from therapy sessions, with single Untie The Knot questioning what life would look like if she let go of limiting beliefs and accepted herself fully.
“I write because it’s a healing experience for me,” she admits. “Because I have a stammer, singing and putting melodies to words allows me to express myself properly. I went deeper than ever on this record, and I hope that our music can be a form of therapy for people. I hope it helps people learn to forgive themselves.”
The cover depicts a woman’s body and hair flowing into the roots of a tree, the sun shining above her head like a halo, bringing home our connection with the natural world – something that’s important to Katrine. The band include the sounds of the outside in their songs.
“I’m a big sucker for field recordings,” Katrine says. “Sometimes the band will have a song nearly finished and I’ll be like ‘...samples?’ The guys focus more on the instrumentation, the chuggy riffs and the arrangements, and I’m obsessed with the natural side of things.”
“The birds on the record are all recorded by me,” she continues. “One is from a trip last summer, and I was sleeping in the guest room of my friend’s cabin. It was 5am, and this bird outside was so loud. I just thought, ‘If I don’t record this, I’ll regret it.’ So I shoved my phone out the window, and I recorded it straight away.”
Bittersweet songs such as I Remember A Time mourn the past as birdsong flourishes, while the wordless Hytta paints a mesmerising soundscape of a place Katrine once held dear.
“Hytta is my favourite track,” Katrine smiles. “I wanted to capture the atmosphere of my family’s cabin that was demolished in 2023. It was just getting too old, too difficult to restore. The track is part of me, and the cabin lives on through it.”
Katrine is touched that such a delicate, unspooling record has sparked recognition in listeners – especially those from the heavier end of the spectrum.
“A Frame Of Mind is very soft, melodic, and atmospheric, but it’s incredibly introspective,” Katrine says. “Metal is a very reflective genre – you’re allowed to express your anger and happiness in their most extreme forms. Our music certainly explores the extremities of human emotion, in that sense.”
Katrine is unsure where Kalandra will go next, but she knows what she wants in the long run.
“We’ll have to see how our wavelengths align for the next project,” she ponders. “But, talking about the bigger picture, I can’t wait to retire. I want a hobbit life, one day. That’s the dream.”
