"lavender and heaven" is full-on, spine-tingling brilliance from iris

Vilde Iris Hartveit Kolltveit - aka iris - has been firmly on the rise ever since her debut EP A Sensitive Being came out last year - a release that was swiftly followed up by the equally impressive Femme Florale EP and several accomplished festival performances. The excitement around the 25-year-old Bergen-born songwriter comes as no surprise when you consider the musical company she's been keeping. As part of the team that brought us Scandinavian superstars Aurora and Sigrid, expectations are unsurprisingly high.

As soon as the goose-bump inducing opening lines on "lavender and heaven" (“It breaks my heart that I have to tell you this / But you don’t need to be fixed my dear”) float into your ears, delivered in iris’ vulnerable falsetto tones, it’s clear the track is uniquely special. Add a heart-breaking chorus into the mix (“I’ll be there / Singing this song I know you’ll never hear / Until you’re here / Singing this song until you’re out of tears”), followed by the false-ending and subsequent chord change, and it progresses to full-on, spine-tingling brilliance.

With a voice as fragile as a half-forgotten dream, the emotion poured into "lavender and heaven" is so evident that it evokes genuine concern upon listening; as if iris is ready to collapse and break and shatter into a million pieces as soon as the song is sung.

Penned as a self-help note to herself, iris explains, “The song is me trying to reach out to me. I have changed a lot,” she says, "but it’s always a ‘disaster’; love is always a disaster, but I am more grounded now, I feel more solid. I’m not-crazy-but-crazy.”

“To me, my songs always sound very dramatic,” she reveals. “I often feel my writing is over the top but it’s also honest. I love making fun of trying to be a cliche, smoking Vogue cigarettes and walking around being dramatic.”