Ollella

Ellie Barber AKA Ollella’s career as a musician started early, when she sang before she could talk. Trained as a classical cellist since the age of nine, the Seattle indie-folk musician merges her technical background with authoritative vocals, live-looping, and improvisation. Described as “really outstanding” by NPR Music’s Bob Boilen and “so tastefully done” by Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast), Ollella blends the acoustic with the contemporary and tenacity with softness, pulling on influences such as Feist, Cat Power and Sylvan Esso. Ollella is a two-time finalist in the NPR Tiny Desk Contest (2022, 2024) whose 2023 debut album was released to critical acclaim. The sophomore Ollella album, Antifragile, is set to be released in spring 2025. Antifragile a maturation of her debut, deepening Barber's collaboration with producer and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Cunningham, while introducing new talents such as Sean Lane on drums (Heart, Perfume Genius) and horn arrangements from Willem de Koch (Fleet Foxes, The Westerlies). Barber finds herself drawn to music because it unlocks a particularly organic flavor of humanity – one that fits the type of world she believes in.