Sandra Kolstad

Rooted in both electronic textures and acoustic instrumentation, Norwegian composer, musician, producer, and author Sandra Kolstad constructs expansive pop pieces steeped in dance-floor and club traditions. Internationally recognized for the striking visual dimension of her live shows, she has maintained a global touring schedule since her emergence in 2009 and has issued a succession of well-received studio albums: Crux (2011), Zero Gravity State of Mind (2014), San Silva (2017), and Burning Love (2019). With her 2024 album Soft Hard she revisited her origins as a classical pianist. In addition, Kolstad composes for theater and dance, creating scores that set new music to texts by Anne Carson, Jon Fosse, Édouard Louis, and Athena Farrokhzad.

Kolstad pursued formal music studies at Sandvika’s Rud High School before issuing her first EP, All That We Are, in 2009. Although her classical-piano training informed the predominantly acoustic character of that debut, her self-produced full-length Crux (2011) shifted toward broader electronic exploration, weaving in samples drawn from Laurie Anderson and Fever Ray. The following year she received a nomination for new internationally breaking artist at Oslo’s by:Larm festival. Also in 2012 she delivered her sophomore album, (Nothing Lasts) Forever, a project shaped by guest appearances from Son of Light, Lucy Swann, and Bloksberg and jointly produced by Kolstad and Petter Eldh.

Portions of her third album, Zero Gravity State of Mind, were captured in Berlin; the record reached European listeners in 2014 and American audiences in 2015, presenting a forward-looking collection of propulsive, rhythm-centered electronic music. Kolstad further honed this progressive electronic-pop approach on the emotionally charged San Silva (2017), whose lyrics addressed justice, love, and hope. In 2019 she released the kindred Burning Love alongside Elv på Himmelen, a work pairing original music with twelve poems by Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse; that same year saw the publication of her debut novel, Two Words for Destruction. The single “Unlearning,” issued in 2023, served as the inaugural preview of the classically oriented piano album Soft Hard.