Sandra Kolstad - Zero Gravity State of Mind

Given that we’re talking evolution, it’s no surprise that the music on Zero Gravity State of Mind doesn’t quite abandon the organic roots of Kolstad’s first compositional forages on the All That We Are EP: just listening to the opening track “Ice Age” is evidence of that. Based around piano and percussion formed out of handclaps, the song is lifted away from its natural beginnings by the time we hit the chorus thanks to bassy synths and skittering electronic drum patterns. Kolstad sings of “burning on the inside”, her organic heart pulsing and beating below the sheen of electronics that freeze over the top of these songs.

Kolstad’s passion burns through the permafrost on “My Yellow Heart”, a song that owes a lot to the more dramatic moments of Broadcast, as spiky arpeggios and booming drums give muscle and definition to little shards of piano lines while Kolstad’s powerful and pronounced voice belies the fear and worry suggested in the song title as she defiantly roars “I, I don’t mind falling”. That voice is given centre stage on “Reason”, underpinned by more handclaps and splashes of 808s, and it’s a voice that deserves the focus. There’s something otherworldly about Kolstad’s matter-of-fact delivery that somehow allows her to enunciate every single word without it ever sounding stilted. Indeed, the actual result is that she sounds completely confident and in control here on “Reason” as she sings “all these reasons to be careful / I don’t think about it / because I don’t care about it” and again on the title track where amongst the playful videogame-style soundtrack (which morphs into a gigantic piano-led pop chorus) where she asks with such authority “do we fall / do we fall / or do we fly?” that it’s basically a moot point.

In discussing her music in 2012, Kolstad spoke of wanting her music to represent the fluidity of water and the development of her sound certainly reflects that. However, on Zero Gravity State of Mind the water seems to be replaced by the leitmotif of ice; there are moments like “Ice Age” and “My Yellow Heart” where the ice represents solidity, or a glacial immovability, while songs like “Room” or the soulful “Earthquake” where Kolstad and guest vocalist Bjorn Tomren sing of riddles and uncertainty that point to the fluidity of ice flows or the fragility of a barely-frozen-over lake. It all makes for layers of intrigue: the confidence of the voice, the power of the music…yet a touch of vulnerability lurking just in the shadow of the control.

There’s much to enjoy on Zero Gravity State of Mind as the record draws to a close; “Valerie” is dramatic, dark and dense with bass and blasts of jazzy brass, and final track “Roots” loops back to the beginning of the record with its elegant flourishes of piano and Kolstad’s delicious falsetto bearing more than a passing resemblance to Kate Bush.

A powerful, focused – yet extremely open – record, Zero State of Gravity more than marks out Sandra Kolstad as an artist making serious and forward-thinking pop music.