Kari Rueslåtten

Kari Rueslåtten
Born 3 October 1973
Trondheim, Norway
Occupation(s) Vocalist, Singer-Songwriter, professor[1]
Instruments Vocals, synthesizer
Years active 1992-2005, 2013-present
Associated acts The 3rd and the Mortal, Storm, Tuomas Holopainen, Rawthang, Art of Fighters, Åge Aleksandersen, Anneke van Giersbergen, Liv Kristine
Website Kari Rueslåtten - The Official Website

Kari Rueslåtten (Trondheim, October 3, 1973) is a Norwegian soprano singer, songwriter and keyboardist, who was well known for being the former lead singer and songwriter for the now disbanded Norwegian doom metal/experimental band, The 3rd and the Mortal from 1992 to 1994. The 3rd and the Mortal was one of the early bands that used a lead female singer in the metal scene, in which inspired bands such as The Gathering, Flowing Tears and Nightwish.

Kari is currently a solo artist, and has released 5 solo albums, and 2 EPs.

Musical History

The 3rd and The Mortal & Storm (1994-1996)

After taking part of some local bands, she was only 19 when she joined the cult progressive doom metal band The 3rd and the Mortal with whom she recorded the demo The 3rd And The Mortal in 1993, the EP Sorrow in 1993 and the full-length album Tears Laid in Earth in 1994 through the record label Voices of Wonder. The music was strongly atmospheric mixing progressive and metal elements.

After she left the band she joined the project Storm and recorded Nordavind before she released her first solo project Demo Recordings, both being Nordic-folk-music styled.

Solo Career & Retirement (1997-2005)

Spindelsinn, her first official solo album came out in 1997 through Sony Norway, sung entirely in the Norwegian language making honour to the Nordic folk music style. She was nominated for best vocal artist in the Norwegian Grammy Awards as best female artist at the Norwegian Hit-Awards. The following year the second release Mesmerized came out. A mellower album, with more personal lyrics in which she left the folk-acoustic style in favour of exploring more modern sounds. The singing style is reminiscent in some parts of Tori Amos mixed with her own style.

Tired of relying on producers to get the sounds she wanted for her songs, she decided to study production and went to London, England for a couple of years. After joining the Swedish label GMR Music Group Kari released a comeback album, the experimental Pilot which contains a lot of modern sounds. It bears some resemblance to Björk, but with the more passionate feel which has always characterized Kari's music. In January 2005, Other People's Stories was issued,[2] showing a simpler side of her music but without losing the modern feel, quality and passion in her performance. At the end of 2005, after performing live in support of her last album, she took a break from her artistic career.

Comeback; Time to Tell (2013 to present)

In 2013 Kari Rueslåtten made a comeback with the remake of The 3rd and The Mortal's classic Why So Lonely, featuring Tuomas Holopainen from Nightwish on piano and keyboards, and followed up with the full length album Time to Tell in 2014, on the Swedish label Despotz Records.

Other Works

Rueslåtten has also been featured in a handful of drum 'n' bass tracks by the Norwegian duo Rawthang. Her vocals of "Hør Min Sang" (Hear My Song) is also featured on a hardcore record, by Art of Fighters, called "Artwork". This track was included on Dutch Hardstyle DJ, The Prophet´s Dj Mix, "Hard 3"

Discography

Solo albums

With The 3rd and the Mortal

With Storm

References

  1. ↑ "Kari Rueslåtten - Metal Archives". metal-archives. Retrieved 2014-11-05.
  2. ↑ "Other People´s Stories : Kari Rueslåtten -- The Official Website". http://www.karirueslatten.com/?post_type=album&p=18''.

External links