There are artists who like to challenge themselves. And then there are artists who sometimes deliberately make things difficult for themselves. But as is well known, resistance can also help create great art. Signe Marie Rustad chose to record her fifth studio album live—in a single take—in front of an enthusiastic audience at Oslo Concert Hall.
The finished result, Do You Know Something I Don’t, is a diamond in an already impressive catalogue. As always, Rustad sounds fresh and new, this time incorporating elements of 1980s and 1990s alternative rock, Californian folk, millennial R&B, and even touches of disco. Rustad is an uncompromising artist uninterested in making the same album twice.
After the process of recording and releasing new music began to feel like a straitjacket following the release of Particles of Faith (2023), there arose a need to shake things up. The singer-songwriter wanted to explore whether it was possible to bring the magical two-way communication that can occur between artist and audience during a concert into a studio setting: “I want to find out what the energy and love present in such a room can do to a studio album,” says Signe Marie Rustad herself.
Signe Marie Rustad has received every accolade possible in Norway for her music. Her two previous albums on DWYBO Records earned top marks from the country’s largest newspapers and garnered a total of three Spellemann nominations, with When Words Flew Freely (2019) winning a Harp in the Lyricist of the Year category.
The new album is produced by Rustad herself alongside her long-term collaborator of now three albums, Kenneth Ishak. In Oslo Concert Hall’s Lille Sal, with its attached studio, they were joined by Rustad’s regular band: Bjørge Verbaan (piano), Alexander Lindbäck (drums), Sander Eriksen Nordahl (guitar), and Njål Uhre Kiese (bass). Solveig Wang (Nothing Personal/Fieh)—co-writer on three of the album’s tracks—played synth, while Stine Andreassen (The Northern Belle/Silver Lining) and Live Miranda Solberg (Louien/Silver Lining) contributed backing vocals, and Ishak played percussion and sang.
With her latest album, Rustad demonstrates an artistic ambition comparable to artists such as Susanne Sundfør and Ane Brun. Do You Know Something I Don’t is a statement rather than a question. The listener becomes one half of the magic created in the music, whether in a sweaty concert hall or through headphones on the bus.
Do You Know Something I Don’t will be released on Die With Your Boots On Records on 17 October 2025.