It was Her Idea

Featuring: Paal Nilssen-Love

"Daughter of War" is the debut album of the new four-piece band It Was Her Idea. Vocalist Juliana Venter and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love have already worked together in Paal’s PNL Circus project and wanted to continue that collaboration in a different direction — to explore other aspects they touched on in Circus and to work with material not solely composed by Paal. Their first choice for bassist was Ole Morten Vågan, who on his own is an orchestra. Ole Morten and Paal have long been friends with mutual artistic respect but never found the time to work properly together. Now the time has come. The fourth member is the Swedish (Norway-based) pianist Oscar Grünberg, who over the past year has clearly established himself as one of the strongest pianists on the Scandinavian music scene. Even on paper you can see this is going to be a different sort of beast.

The four musicians began playing together in 2022, and all contributed compositions; through the combination of these four individual voices something new was born — more than a one-off meeting. The music is a mix of jazz, contemporary music, noise and conceptual pieces — a broad musical landscape that reflects the four’s many years of experience. A strong feature of the band is Juliana’s visceral vocal performance, which gives the group a unique focus. The title track — the sadly all-too-relevant "Daughter of War," with lyrics written by Khaleda Froagh — is proof of Juliana’s strength as a vocalist.