Ingrid Olava's debut album was released in March 2008 in Scandinavia to both commercial and critical acclaim. The album, "Juliet's Wishes", has been certified gold in her native Norway and earned Olava three Norwegian Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist, Best Song ("Back to Love") and Female Artist of the Year. 

Ingrid Olava's second album is called 'The Guest'' and is due for release in Norway in February 2010 on her own Daring Viola label through Universal.

Guests are in a vulnerable position, beholden to their hosts and corralled by the circumstances. The situation offers little opportunity for control - for both the guest and their host.

Olava got the first ideas for the title track while she was on tour in Toronto. She went into a music store posing as a potential customer interested in buying one of the pianos on offer just to be able to finish the tune. In the song, the guest seeks out someone already taken who is keen and intrigued enough by the attention received to leave the door ajar. Not because it is the easiest option, but because it might just be what the guest basically intended; to take control of the situation in order to pass it on to someone else.

A similar relationship has evolved between Olava and her songs. This time around she invited her regular band Erland Dahlen (drums & percussion) and Jo Berger Myhre (bass, guitar and sounds) to participate in the development of the songs, effectively making Ingrid Olava MK2 sound like a band.

The result of the collaboration are tracks where form and content constantly challenge each other in surprising ways - "The Guest" is a darker disc, bursting with sparkling minor chords. A record full of diversity with tracks ranging from the sparse piano accompaniment in "Poster Child" to the big, full-blown swirling string laden belters, as exemplified in her first single "Warrior Song".

Control is also a theme that appears in several places on the album. In "The Passenger”, the narrator is at the mercy of their own infatuation, similar to the airline passengers who are relying on the airplane’s pilot and crew to reach their destination safely. In “The Queen”, the Queen is in charge and control of everything, except her own lover. 

Ingrid is also a gifted interpreter of other people’s songs, on record as well as in concert. On”Juliet's Wishes", she tackled Bob Dylan's "It's Allright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" in an impressive manner.  Last winter art by accident happened when she performed a cover of “Her kommer vintern’” (Here comes the winter) by the Norwegian rock singer Joachim Nilsen – an ode to those who know what taking a walk on the wild side really implies. The recording, made for a show on national radio station NRK P3, has so far been streamed online more than 400 000 times on YouTube. Ingrid will undoubtedly in her capacity as singer/songwriter continue to interpret other people’s songs, this time around nevertheless only when playing live.

"The Guest" is mostly recorded live in Malabar Studio in Oslo with Frode Jacobsen (Madrugada) and Alex Kloster Jensen as producers and Lars Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist, National Bank) as arranger of all things strings & brass . They have captured the intensity and tension in the material, as performed by a songwriter who since her debut has grown to become a skilled performer.  

Tracklisting for ''The Guest''

1.             The Queen

2.             Passenger

3.             Won't Be Silenced

4.             Warrior Song

5.             You Will Be Moved Although The World Stays The Same

6.             Treasure and Pain

7.             The Sun

8.             Love, Oh Love

9.             The Guest

10.         I Was Wrong

11.         Poster Child