Robin Kester releases her new single Cat 13. The spellbinding dreampop single premiered – just like her previous release (Leave Now) – on Lauren Laverne's breakfast show on BBC Radio 6 Music. In addition, Robin Kester is prominently featured in the film Press Play, with a demo version of her song Day Is Done. The film opened in American cinemas since this week.
Earlier this year, the musician played four shows with her band at the showcase festival SXSW in Austin, Texas. Next month the band will travel to England for the first time, for a show at London's Shacklewell Arms, on August 10, presented by Eat Your Own Ears and Loud & Quiet. Next week (July 8), the musician can be seen at the Groningen festival Hongerig Wolf. In November the band will play at the Crossing Border festival in The Hague.
"A beautiful track from Robin Kester!" - Huw Stephens, BBC 6 Music
"Few artists can make melancholy sound simultaneously intimate and widescreen, but Kester does this once again on “Cat 13”" - The Revue
"It's so effortless" - Shell Zenner, Amazing Radio
"Robin Kester explores social discomfort on beautiful indie song" - 3voor12
"Robin Kester‘s music soothes the listener from your everyday drudgery, which might lead you to assume it’s an escape to more surrealistic themes. Though her songs indeed have an ethereal quality, they often spring from very grounded places, growing like vines from seeds of specific memories." - Beats Per Minute
Robin Kester – Cat 13
Cat 13 is produced by Robin Kester with Marien Dorleijn (Moss), with additional production and mix by Ali Chant (Yard Act, Aldous Harding, PJ Harvey). Mastered by Joe Lambert (Sharon Van Etten, The Antlers).
Robin Kester: vocals, guitar, synths, spinet, wurlitzer, piano, vibraphonette, percussion
Marien Dorleijn: backing vocals, trumpet, synth, percussion
Michiel Stam: guitar
Thijs Visscher: bass guitar
Joep van Osch: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Susanne Linssen: violin
Timo Jilesen: saxophone
About Robin Kester
If fear keeps you from doing things, your world becomes smaller. Overcoming that fear by courting new, sometimes unnerving situations is the premise of Dutch recording artist and musician Robin Kester. Kester’s experimental pop exudes a hazy euphoria and dark tension: the thrill of your synapses firing on all cylinders before turning into fully-formed thought.
Garnering widespread acclaim with her mini-album This Is Not A Democracy last year – with airplay from BBC 6 Radio, KCRW and KEXP – Kester has drawn a wide range of comparisons, ranging from Portishead, Broadcast to Julia Holter. Though operating on a comparable sonic wavelength, Robin Kester is a distinct voice coming fully into her own.
Drifting between the outer realms of chamber pop, electronic music and psychedelic rock, Kester writes wholly adventurous music. Not adventurous per se in the naive sense, since there’s always some element of mystery on the prowl. Having moved around from town to town a lot as a child, many of her songs reframe past impressions into wandering reflections, often inspired by specific moments and sceneries.