Islaja’s music is a dream, abstract and enchanted but grounded in the earthiness of a Finnish forest floor. - Kim Gordon
Islaja is Merja Kokkonen: a composer, performer and recording artist who after living and working in Berlin for over a decade, is now in 2024 permanently back in Helsinki Finland.
Since her debut in 2004, she has released four albums on Finland's Fonal Records, one on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label, one on Berlin-based monika enterprise, one on Svart Records, as well as a series of singles on labels such as Not Not Fun and Root Strata.
The most recent album Angel Tape came out on Other Power in October 2023.
With her haunting vocals and shamanic melodies, Finnish composer and musician Islaja takes her audience on a journey to other worlds. Since the experimental, psychedelic folk music of her early albums, she has long embraced "warped and left-field" electronics. She has been compared to Björk, Syd Barrett, and Nico.
She earned quick praise in the international music press for her unique vocal style and daring DIY approach to music composition, with kudos from the Wire magazine, Pitchfork and Tiny Mix Tapes.
In addition to her solo work, she also performs with Monika Werkstatt, an all-female collective founded by Gudrun Gut. This Berlin-based group of international artists organizes workshops, panel discussions and collaborative concerts and aims to provoke discussion about women in electronic music.
photo credit Juho Liukkonen
photo credit Mika Minetti
photo credit Mika Minetti
photo credit Mika Minetti
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