Electronic composer, producer, and vocalist
Olga Bell was born in Moscow and raised in Alaska before moving to New York City in her early twenties to pursue a career in performance and songwriting. After graduating from the New England Conservatory,
Bell landed in Brooklyn, where she began playing shows and releasing music under her last name. The singer's muscular voice and bubbly electronic indie tunes first showed up in the form of a self-titled, self-released EP in 2007, and she would go on from there to release her debut album, Diamonite, in 2011, as well as various tracks and remixes online. Over her trek through independent music circles she would work with artists as diverse as
Das Racist and
Philip Glass. She eventually joined with British musician
Tom Vek to form the dance-oriented group
Nothankyou, and in 2012 joined indie stars
Dirty Projectors as keyboardist and vocalist. In 2014
Bell released her second solo record,
Krai, an album sung entirely in Russian and exploring themes of Russian heritage and lesser-known territories of her home country. The Incitation EP followed a year later, and 2016 brought her third LP, the alternative dance-driven
Tempo. ~ Fred Thomas