alda ate the hypnotist

Alda Bjork Olafsdottir is an Icelandic singer/songwriter who scored a couple of major hit records in the late 90s with the tracks 'Real Good Time' and 'Girls Night Out'. Having focused largely on writing songs for other artists since her own 'pop' days she got initially inspired to make a 'chill out' album with her friend Charlie (the hypnotist) after hearing some of his very successful hypnosis cd's.

As time went on however the project moved in a more and more experimental direction after deciding to make the whole album a story telling saga about one person, Rosa Lee.

Charles Vald is a hypnotherapist and composer of relaxing music. One day he was chatting to his friend Alda and they thought it would be amazing to combine there talents in producing a relaxation album using only classical instruments.

Excited to produce a song quickly Charles enhanced one of the songs from a musical album he had already created and a few days later the draft was ready for Alda to listen to. An inspired Alda rushed away and wrote the lyrics and "I feel Love" was born .
(Please note the order of the songs below is not the order on the album for reasons discussed below).

Charles enjoys the sound of different brass instruments (maybe because he himself played the trumpet as a teenager) and you can here this in "I Feel Love" to convey warmth and calm.

Once, the first song was created, Charles then got busy working on the music to the song Bye, Bye, Bye. He wanted to use similar orchestral instruments to keep the same feel and relaxing style as the previous song and yet there was a yearning to experiment. In the song you can hear the tapping of feet, not what you would expect to hear in a relaxing classic piece. Alda also started experimenting with her voice. The album was developing, things were changing, evolving.

It was around this time that Charles suggested it would be great if the album was some sort of story; the next thing he knew Alda had got to work, creating a poignant tale with track titles and a synopsis of each the story behind each track. (Voice Diary Entries can be found through the menu before each song). Charles then used this to compose the rest of the songs ensuring the music added ambiance. The idea of this album being simply a relaxation album was out of the window.

The third track Charles composed still had an orchestral feel, but he introduced drums and organs. The style of the album was changing yet again. The next song "Stop", was one of the hardest songs to compose and was emotional for Alda to sing. You can clearly hear the turmoil throughout the song, the drums become more chaotic as the tension increases. It starts so happy and then suddenly changes, as the true story of the song comes out.

“Where Is The Love” came next, Charles wanted to experiment with different instruments using bagpipes, pianos and choirs. Alda used the more modern sounds to produce a more pop/ballad orientated style song. By this point Alda and Charles were comfortable with each others' working styles to really experiment. The result is the most original and unique material on the album. “My Beautiful Valentine.”

Things didn't end there, Alda gave Charles his hardest challenge yet, the death of Rosa Lee's grandma. the music builds up with a mixture of the most unusual sounds to a fantastic crescendo.

Gone was the idea of simply a relaxation album, gone was the idea of only using classical instruments, things had changed, things had evolved and a year after it was first started, the “Life of Rosa Lee” was born.