Bladed is vocalist, composer and producer Anita Kaasb�ll's solo project. It started in 2004 as an improvisation duo with guitarist Stian Westerhus while studying at the jazz conservatory in Trondheim, since then Kaasb�ll has collaborated with a collection of Norway's most distinctive and creative musicians.
Bladed has always gone beyond genre boundaries and constantly explored new expressions and soundscapes within a wide pop/rock format. The debut Mangled Dreams (CGR 2009) can be described as sludge noise rock with vocals, over loose structures and elements of sound improvisation. Rockeweb gave it top score and called Bladed a pure natural force. The sequel Once We Were Wild (CGR 2013) has a drier and heavier rock-oriented sound with more genre-authentic song structures, mixed with complementary and contrasting elements of noise. Music from Norway wrote that the album is as if Nick Cave changed gender and rattled the Birthday Party together to create the perfect pop / rock record, and it is actually quite possible that this one is. This is simply insanely good. Bladed's third album Halloween In Bagamoyo (CGR 2015) is a fusion of western rock, avant-garde noise, African blues and Nordic soul. Popmonitor in Berlin wrote that �Bladed combine artpop and indierock. Halloween In Bagamoyo calls for being played over and over again. The songs are complex and expressive with skilled and playful arrangement. Anita Kaasb�ll is an artist second to none.
Bladed is now releasing its fourth album, The Ballad Of The Hammer And The Nail. Like Once We Were Wild and Halloween In Bagamoyo, the album was written in collaboration with lyricist Thomas Oxem. During recording and mixing, Anita Kaasb�ll worked closely with musician and producer Kenneth Ishak from Beezewax, Heyerdahl, Universet and more. In addition, Beezewax guitarist Mattias Krohn Nielsen and saxophonist Dario Fariello contribute on a couple of the songs. Kaasb�ll and Ishak have arranged and produced the nine songs together, giving the record a consistently analog and unpolished quality. The instrumentation is more restrained than on the previous releases and leaves more space for Kaasb�ll's distinctive vocals and strong melodies. The compositions have a clear reference to art music and use these elements in an indie pop frame. With the vocals as the pivotal element of the composition, the music has evolved towards a more organic and low-key expression, it�s been about toning down the loud implements without loss of energy, about shouting with a soft voice. The lyrics range from the na�ve and the satirical, to quotes and allegories that refer to sources of inspiration in art, psychoanalytic symbolism and classical literature. And they deal with topics such as love for the nature and cultural landscape of Vester�len, global resource distribution, an almost accepted everyday racism, identity crisis, Peter Pan syndrome and alienation, in addition to the shock and grief after the sudden loss of a close friend.
The Ballad Of The Hammer And The Nail is a low-key and unpolished album about grief, prejudice, topophilia, that something will give in and shouting with a soft voice.
