Hanne Kolstø is a hyper-active Norwegian songwriter and artist, with six al… Read Full Bio ↴Hanne Kolstø is a hyper-active Norwegian songwriter and artist, with six album releases in the last four years. With a unique voice and intuitive sense of melodies she lures you into her world of dark personal lyrics and flourishing creativity. She loves to experiment and mix genres – one moment she whispers softly in your ear, the next she howls with despair.

Hanne Kolstø has always been an artist who makes her own choices, and with «Fest Blikket» she once again makes an unexpected one. But this isn’t a daring thing to do for an artist like Hanne Kolstø. She’s always had blind faith in her own musical expression, and she’s landing firmly on her own feet this time as well. Of course she does.
This will be her second full length album this year, but while she took apart her old songs and gave them an acoustic wrapping on her last album, «Live at Tøyenkirken», she’s made a return to electronic music on «Fest Blikket». This time, though, the lyrics are in Norwegian.
Originally, «Fest Blikket» was recorded as an instrumental album, and initially she planned to release it like that. But, as she says:
«I’ve always written small poems in Norwegian, but never really considered them for mye songs. But, by creating my musical landscape first, it was as if my lyrics was set free. Instead of putting lyrics to melodies, I found melodies to the lyrics. That way, you might say everything’s been turned upside down on this album».
So you might say this is an unexpected choice by Kolstø, but it really isn’t a new thing. She’s always written Norwegian texts besides her music, so it was just a question of time before she took the final step.
On «Fest Blikket», the pursuit of an identity is a recurring theme, which incidentally always has been a theme in Hanne’s music.
You could say this album’s expression is much closer to me than the previous albums».
The Norwegian lyrics brings a new dimension to Hanne Kolstø’s music, and you might say that she’s finally come «home». Including this album, she’s released seven albums in six years, and even though that’s impressive, the music will always be the one thing you remember when you think of Hanne Kolstø.