Magical Thinking by Farao

Magical Thinking, Farao’s third studio album, unfolds as a layered journey through loss, longing, and transformation. Evoking the title and spirit of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, it moves through the quiet terrain between denial and acceptance, where grief is not solved, but carried. These are songs of rebuilding and resilience, shaped by themes of grief, motherhood, and the essential rituals that sustain us when clarity fades.

Recorded between Oslo and Berlin, the album pulses with ’90s R&B flair, ’80s disco shimmer, and the contemplative sweep of spiritual jazz, anchored throughout by Farao’s intimate vocals and intricate arrangements. From the opening shimmer of “Waiting for You,” where heartbreak is dressed in sequins and a groove evokes Robyn and Chaka Khan, the record invites us into a world where longing is made luminous.

On “Spiritual Garden,” named after a fleeting Janet Jackson lyric, Farao crafts a humid, narcotic R&B reverie. Timbaland-style percussion and silky basslines cradle her zither’s unexpected textures, conjuring a meditation on abandonment and the fragile reclamation of self-worth. When “Dreamy Ride” glides in—where Aaliyah’s cool meets Dorothy Ashby’s cosmic harp—the album slips into nocturnal motion, an R&B fantasia for 2 a.m. city drives, her zither weaving through the mix like a guiding star.

The playful synth-jam “Hey Ladies” and a bold reinterpretation of Brandy’s “Full Moon” lighten the mood midway through. The former is a cheeky, one-minute homage to Destiny’s Child; the latter, a nighttime elegy that drapes a beloved classic in deep bass and glimmering synths. Then comes “Xiang Xiang,” an intimate interlude built around a whispered voice-note from a friend, reminding us of the real-world bonds grounding Farao’s lush sonic universe.

At the album’s center is the title track “Magical Thinking,” which directly references Didion’s memoir. Here, pulsing synths and drifting vocals trace the blurred terrain between presence and dissociation. It’s followed by “Endelig” (“finally” in Norwegian), a deep exhale, a minimal, spiritual jazz interlude that offers the illusion of resolution.

Farao then teams up with ambient pioneer Laraaji for “Voice Continues,” a spacious, fourth-world-inspired meditation where zither, layered vocals, and synth textures form a sonic tapestry mapping the lingering traces of maternal love across generations. “Tschüssi” (a breezy German goodbye) becomes a vessel for something far weightier: a farewell laced with looping memory and emotional disorientation, built around a ghostly fragment from Farao’s track “Marry Me.”

The album closes on a hazy, merciful note with “Sleep It Off,” a lullaby for the overwhelmed, a final permission to rest, to let go, to simply lie down. Not a promise of healing, but a compassionate pause in a record defined by yearning and illusion.

Since her last solo album, Kari Jahnsen, born in the small Norwegian village of Ulnes and now based in Oslo, has co-founded and released two critically acclaimed records with the disco duo Ultraflex, earning Best Electronic Album at the Icelandic Music Awards. During that time, she also experienced the profound life shift of becoming a mother to two children. These transformations shaped a clearer, more grounded return to solo work.

Recognized by Pitchfork, The New York Times, Clash, and The Line of Best Fit, and having performed at festivals like Roskilde, SXSW, Øya, and Green Man, Farao reemerges with Magical Thinking not just as a musician, but as someone remade by change, offering a body of work where grief lingers, not to be resolved, but honored and held.

Farao combines smooth 90s R&B with sensual 80s disco, ambient spiritual jazz and layers of lush zithers to create her own sonic fantasy; Think Janet Jackson meets Alice Coltrane. Farao is the musical alias of Norwegian producer Kari Jahnsen, whose sound combines her vintage synthesizer collection and sultry vocal harmonies.

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