Kalandra announce new album and share first single ‘Let Me Be Open’

Norwegian pop/folk outfit Kalandra unveiled the first single ‘Let Me Be Open’, taken from the much anticipated third studio album The Other Side. The new album is set for 13th November via By Norse Music.

Stream here: https://bfan.link/let-me-be-open

Kalandra take the listeners on a breathtaking journey through dreams and nightmares on their new full-length. ‘Let Me Be Open’ encourages the free and openmindedness we gradually lose more and more as we grow older. In dreamy and uplifting soundscapes, vocalist Katrine chants: “Let me be open and ready to recieve”. The song expresses hope, and inspires to not be ruled by fear, and rather to explore and remember the curiousity and spark of childhood.

Katrine explains: “There’s a moment when you realise how much of yourself you’ve learned to hold back. ‘Let Me Be Open’ grew out of that feeling, the longing to loosen your grip, let go of some of the fear, and rediscover the sense of wonder you had as a child. It’s a song about making space for something softer to emerge, and trusting that not every shadow needs to be fought.”

On the album, the band explores the mysterious imagery of the subconscious where memories, fears, and imagination quietly intertwine. Thematically following a series of vivid and recurring dreams over the past few years. Katrine, together with bandmate Jogeir Daae Mæland, began exploring the world of dream analysis. Keeping a notebook by the bed, they started writing down fragments of dreams the moment they woke. Those scattered images, emotions, and subconscious narratives, became the foundation for a new collection of songs.

Kalandra are simultaniously announcing their biggest headliner tour in Europe to date, with special guest singer-songwriter Finnegan Tui from New Zealand. The 2027 tour starts on 26th February in Cologne and ends 27th March in Amsterdam. A full list of confirmed dates can be found below. Tickets are on sale HERE

Kalandra Norway
26.11.2026 Folken, Stavanger 
27.11.2026 KICK, Kristiansand
04.12.2026 Kulturhuset, Bergen
05.11.2026 Sinus, Bodø
11.12.2026 SALT, Oslo
12.12.2026 HAVET, Trondheim

The dream world has inspired many great works of art over the centuries. The phantasmagorical terrain inhabited by Lewis Carroll, Salvador Dali and David Lynch is where we now find Scandinavian alt-prog-folk artisans Kalandra, whose elegant blend of Nordic pop savvy and dark atmospheric rock has been a developing sensation for 15 years. Formed while the core members were studying at Paul McCartney‘s Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, their remarkably assured 2020 debut album The Line – over 54 million streams and counting – was followed by 2022’s immersive video game soundtrack Kingdom Two Crowns: Norse Lands. In 2024, their captivatingly majestic A Frame Of Mind album powerfully affirmed Kalandra‘s ascendancy – as did their sold-out headline show at Oslo’s 1300-capacity Rockefeller venue earlier this year. Their proven genius for weaving ethereal melodies into raw and eerie musical landscapes makes them a perfect fit for a concept album about dreaming, as we are presented with on The Other Side. 

Determining the theme before writing began, the band started ‘dream journalling’: jotting down their nocturnal visions and working them into songs. “It’s been very helpful to write down my dreams,” affirms singer Katrine. “It definitely affected how I wrote lyrics. I would love to do this again, have some sort of loose concept, it brings the record together.“

“Knowing the theme was dreaming was helpful to me musically too,” adds guitarist Florian. “We could have these dreamy effects in there. I feel most of the songs have nightmarish or dreamy parts, one way or another. There are still a lot of different themes here though, there’s folklore, current events, introspective stuff, life and death… Everything can fit into dreams lyrically speaking, it’s just life, it’s all-encompassing.” 

Kalandra have long since settled into their own versatile musical identity, embracing effective contrasts between shimmering joy and aching melancholy, sounding atavistically ancient but stylishly contemporary, otherworldly but firmly rooted in woodland soil. Kalandra‘s open-minded, open-hearted signature sound may take in several reference points, but it remains impervious to easy categorisation. Freely cited inspirations on The Other Side‘s heavy guitar quotient include Alice In Chains and Bring Me The Horizon, while neoclassical legends Dead Can Dance, Norwegian electro-alt-rockers Pyke and Oslo ‘doomgaze’ unit Leonov also made their mark on Kalandra‘s creative psyche. Even so, this is a band that will always obey their own singular muse:

“To me it’s about trying to write something I haven’t heard before,” says Florian. “That’s not to say it hasn’t been done! But if I haven’t heard it before, then it piques my interest.“

Line-up:
Katrine Ødegård Stenbekk – Vocals
Jogeir Daae Mæland – Guitar, Keyboard
Florian Bernhard Döderlein Winter – Guitar
Oskar Johnsen Rydh – Drums