Norway’s Gundelach is an old friend of Ja Ja Ja Music at this point, after joining several of our live events across Europe, the latest one being in Vienna in January. His sleek style of pop music has strong 80’s vibes, and the latest single ‘Garden’ does not disappoint. It has a vibrant analogue synth background, an ever so funky bass, an electric guitar solo ending, with the soulful voice of Kai Gundelach topping it all off. It’s disco-esque, but in a beautifully melancholic way.
Gundelach started making music as a child, first singing in a theatre group and then learning to play the guitar, but his first solo performances were as a DJ in Oslo. In an interview in the Andy Warhol-founded Interview Magazine he tells the story of how he as a teenager bought some decks with his savings, went to clubs with a fake ID, and ended up playing his own DJ gigs when he was only 17-18 years old. He didn’t want to settle for playing other people’s music though, so he started making his own, but it took several years before he was ready to share the music with the world. This happened in 2015 and the song was called ‘Spiders’, which was noticed by Ja Ja Ja Music, and also Pharrell Williams, who played the song on Beats 1.
‘Garden’ will be part of Gundelach’s forthcoming second EP, set to be released through the Norwegian label U Ok?. He is also going to play some festivals this summer, starting with the Imagine Festival in Basel, Switzerland on Friday (9 June), and later in Norway at Piknik i Parken in Oslo (23 June), Vinjerock in Vinje (22 July) and Vangen Festival in Haugesund (5 August). Have a listen to the new single below.
