Maja Ratkje (b. 1973) is one of Norway's most important composers since Arne Nordheim, but also a unique extreme vocalist, noise artist and multi-faceted electronic musician whose sound embraces from the high explosive to a kind of psychedelic trance chamber.
Ratkje has a background in classical composition and improvisation, and has made her name on the international avant-garde scene by cultivating the extreme sides of the vocal range. Her hard-boiled performances are based on a sophisticated musical machinery where hypnotic singing, whispers and screams occur side by side with advanced technique and sample home-built electronics. Ratkje has managed to take vocal territory to completely new stages that have made her one of the world's most coveted vocal improvisers right now.