Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10

Whether you like your music to be organic, to have flowed from the streets that straddle the River Mersey in some age old ritual acknowledgement to the flower and testimony of Liverpool upbringing or to have had the chance to have been guided and nurtured to hone the craft of writing, what you cannot fail to miss is the passion that flows through each tempting note of either camp.

For those that like to take in the imagination of students who make Liverpool their home for a few years, to see them have the culture that furnishes the city like a warehouse supplies fancy goods to the consumer, placed so deep within their soul that it seeps out and infuses others then Kalandra is the latest set of musicians to have made their way out of L.I.P.A. and their story is spreading.

With front woman Katrine Ødegård Stenbekk, across between the stage presence of Stevie Nicks, the demureness of Ragz Nordset and the vivaciousness of Kate Bush all wrapped up in A Grace Slick shell, and the band comprising of Helen Morrisson on piano and backing vocals, Hamish Gore on bass, Florian Winter on guitar, the disarmingly superb Jogier Mæland on guitar and the stunning Andreas Voie Juliebø on drums it was no wonder that the audience inside the Paul McCartney Theatre of L.I.P.A were going wild for this talented band.

With tracks such as Wolf, the superb The Siren , Rest Your Soul, the supposed innocence of Home Is Where You Make It and Not Some Fairytale all being played with the tempo of seasoned professionals and the agility of Olga Corbett playing guitar, this was a chance to to enjoy the image of what was to come, whether in the next couple of years or just a bit longer, the time will come when this band is on a hell of a lot of people’s lips.

There are great performances and then there are moments of such exquisiteness that have been captured forever within the space of four walls that to think of them will cause the mouth to smile and the heart to weep that it might never see the like of again. Kalandra follow in the footsteps of other bands and artists that have Liverpool, thanks in part to L.I.P.A., running through their veins and exemplify the belief that Liverpool truly is the place in which music in England starts.

Kalandra are going places, even if they don’t survive as a band in the coming years, the memory will keep music lovers warm and cosy. A fantastic set and one on which the jaw hit the floor several times and needed a winch and a team of people wearing yellow hats and carrying a few clipboards between them in which to reel the stirrings of a new exciting band in.

Ian D. Hall