Islaja is Merja Kokkonen, a visual artist and musician from Helsinki, Finland, now living and working in Berlin, Germany. She records her music at home using a rainbow of instruments to accompany her personal vocal delivery sang in Finnish. Islaja's debut album Meritie (2004) gained praise in international music media such as The Wire, Dusted Magazine and WFMU. The follow-up release Palaa aurinkoon (2005) caused even more excitement and created quite a stir.