Katla (album)

Katla is the second album by Norwegian singer-songwriter Ida Maria. It was released in Norway in September 2010 and internationally in June 2011.

Album information

The album was recorded in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, sometime during the Summer of 2010, while the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted, which led Ida Maria to title it Katla. The original edition of the album featured, on its cover, a photo of the volcano taken in 1918. Produced by Butch Walker (Avril Lavigne, P!NK), it was considered by Maria as a good opportunity to experiment.

The two advance tracks before the international release were "Bad Karma" and "Cherry Red". In Norway, the first single was "Quite Nice People", which was promoted by a video directed by Stone Elvestad. Additionally, "Bad Karma" was featured in the 2011 film Scream 4.

The track "10,000 Lovers" is partially sung in Ida Maria's native Norwegian and, therefore, marks the first time the singer does so in an official release.

Artwork

The original cover of the album is the photo of the 1918 eruption of the Katla Volcano. The included album booklet includes also artwork for every song in the album, the included artwork for "Bad Karma" was as well used for the single release. There's an extra photo which although unmarked, can stand as the artwork for "Gallery". The back cover of the album does not include "Gallery" in the track list.

Katla (dragon)

Katla is a fictional female dragon from the Swedish children's book The Brothers Lionheart, written by Astrid Lindgren. The name Katla is an old Norse female name and means either "the kettle" or "the boiler". It is also the name of a volcano on Iceland.

Katla is a huge ancient monster in the land of Nangijala, with the ability to spray flames from her mouth, just like its namesake volcano in Iceland. And if a victim of the flames survives, the victim is paralyzed. Katla is controlled and will obey only a lur, which is owned by the evil warlord Tengil, who uses Katla to terrorize Nangijala. The scale of Katla is so strong that no weapon can damage her or even leave a scratch. When the citizens of Cherry Valley rises up against Tengil, he uses Katla to stop them, but loses the lur to a Jonathan Lionheart, one of the protagonists. Jonathan uses the lur to make Katla kill Tengil, but Katla later burns Jonathan, mortally wounding him. Before dying, Jonathan manages to push a large rock onto Katla, making her fall into a river. In the river she battles another great beast, Karm the lindworm, and the two monsters kill each other.