Katrine Ottosen a.k.a. CALLmeKAT
Some things are worth waiting for (like Christmas), but anyone who knows me personally will know that patience is not my strongest virtue. Not a useful lack of character on my part, as over the past year and a half there has been a smattering of very promising sampler releases ahead of their official debuts. As a result, I have been left in a perpetual state of urgency, proving of course that the traditional time-line of EP-before-LP successfully hits home with the eager consumer. As previously mentioned, for example, Architeq’s Birds of Prey is good. So good that I’m diminished to listening to the same four tracks over and over again. Otherwise, I scour Brick Lane in search of gigs Sam Annand may be gracing with his presence. But one EP that makes me feel impatiently greedy is the release from Copenhagen-based artist Katrine Ottosen. Coming out under her moniker CALLmeKAT, her debut EP I’m In A Polaroid, Where Are You? was released back in June in preperation for the full-length Fall Down in November on Playground Music.
Mastered by the genius of Icelandic producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, her work is both organic and universal. As a very talented female vocalist, Ottosen is yet another example of some of the finest Scandinavia has to offer. Her voice has a natural timber, both delicate and restrained when added to a minimalist chansons françaises-style backdrop of sparse melodies, Parisian film-set inspired interludes, and amusement-park percussion similar to that used by toytronic Psapp. Hers is not a music of melancholy, nor is it overtly happy and uplifting. What it is, however, is honest, comforting and intimate. Anyone who loves Lykke Li, Wildbirds & Peacedrums and Silje Nes (unfailingly brilliant Scandinavian sounds once again) is guaranteed to love CALLmeKAT’s EP. Now of course, I can’t wait until November (even if it offers eight tracks instead of Architeq’s four); but in the meantime I’ll seek comfort in the earlier release of Ottosen’s cover contribution of ‘Love Cats’ on the Cure tribute album Perfect As Cats, out on…uh, 28th October.
Sarah Badr © MMVIII
See also: Katrine Ottosen
sarah badr | pieces at random 