Øya festival is off to a great start with the programming and ticket sales, and already have headliners THE CURE and NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS in place. Now organisers are releasing five strong Saturday artists.
It looks set to be a wonderfully varied end to Øya Festival 2026, where you can experience the rising star RAVYN LENAE and the living legends UNDERWORLD. In addition, audience favorites VALKYRIEN ALLSTARS, the rising star CMAT and the brand new project ALLE MINE HUNDER. The latter is a collaboration between Lars Vaular and Gundelach.
RAVYN LENAE from Chicago released her second album Bird’s Eye last year, which contained the smash hit Love Me Not. It reached the top ten in a number of countries and was the start of what we are sure will be a major breakthrough.
She creates atmospheric, style-expanding and exciting R&B that leans on several different expressions, and borrows pieces from, among others, pop, jazz, hip hop and funk. She signed with Atlantic itself as a teenager in 2016. Her debut album Hypnos was not released until 2022, after several promising EPs in the previous years.
RAVYN LENAE has worked in various ways with Kaytranda, Childish Gambino, Anderson.Paak and Steve Lacy. At the same time, she has established herself as a solid live artist. She has toured with, among others, Omar Apollo, Sabrina Carpenter and SZA. We look forward to presenting Ravyn Lenae to a large audience in Tøyenparken.
Karl Hyde and Rick Smith are living legends in techno and related club music. They have been working together since the 80s, but really came to attention during the 90s. After expanding into a trio (for a few years with Darren Emerson), they released the successful album Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1993). The sequels Second Toughest in the Infants (1996) and Beaucoup Fish (1999), as well as music in the influential film Trainspotting, secured them an even larger audience.
The sound of UNDERWORLD works equally well in cramped clubs and large arenas. They have remixed everything from Shakespear Sister, Depeche Mode and Bjørk to Leftfield and the Chemical Brothers. Underworld had musical leadership during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London. So far, their latest album release was Strawberry Hotel from 2024.
The Arts Desk has written: – This music sets up the release of collective partying, a shared dream expressed in moments of transcendence and unadulterated happiness. There is something beautifully child-like about Underworld’s music – as if getting out of your head was in many ways a return to innocence.
VALKYRIEN ALLSTARS is known as one of the country’s best live bands, and since their first release in 2007, they have been at the forefront of the development of arranged folk music. The quartet is at the forefront of a new wave of artists and bands that use traditional elements in new ways. The band’s music has taken new directions with each release, and they are considered pioneers of the new folk music, with their own unique expression. Both on record and live, energy, fervor and surprising twists abound.
In the summer of 2025, VALKYRIEN ALLSTARS released their seventh album, called Venter på noen, som venter på noen. On this release, they continued their unique genre mix. Dagsavisen called it “an album with a strong whole, with a unique personality and an irresistible charm”.
It is said that the energetic group never plays two concerts the same. If you haven’t already been to a Valkyrien concert, we recommend that you catch one of the country’s most wonderful live attractions in Tøyenparken this summer.
ALLE MINE HUNDER is a new musical collaboration between Lars Vaular and Kai Gundelach. Both are already established names on the Norwegian music scene, but in this project they meet in a common expression that both builds on their individual strengths and opens up for something new. With three singles out, the band has already given a glimpse of what is to come: a combination of Vaular’s characteristic lyrics and presence and Gundelach’s distinctive melodic sensibility.
The result is music that moves at the intersection of electronic moods, club, strong lyrics and an immediate, yet exploratory soundscape. The duo’s debut album marks the start of a collaboration that appears both natural and innovative. For listeners curious about how two distinct voices in Norwegian music can merge into a band of their own, this is a must-listen album.
Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson aka CMAT from Dublin gains a significantly larger audience with each release. All three of her albums have reached number one in her home country. Euro-Country (2025) reached number two on the UK sales charts, and she is now poised to achieve the same success in the rest of Europe. Her very catchy and moody pop songs have an occasional country flavour.
There’s an infectious joy to all that Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson does, but she wouldn’t be here (on the brink of proper superstardom) if it wasn’t for the emotional suckerpunch she lands with each LOLsome lyric, every pintful of charisma, every bedroom mirror dance moment – NME
CMAT is back in Tøyenparken after four years, ready for an even bigger Oslo audience. You shouldn’t miss it.
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