“The wandering kind have the right to a safe haven.” A centuries-old saying of sorts, one that definitely applies to Dutch musician and songwriter Sofie Winterson. Her second albumSophia Electric – released on Excelsior Recordings this fall – is a personal document about love, letting go, change and memory. The music was written and recorded at a couple of different locations, namely Los Angeles, Lisbon, Haarlem and Amsterdam, but her guitar was always within reach.
The initial spark that lit the creative fire came when DJ Turquoise Wisdom introduced Winterson to a couple of obscure folk singles after a session on Red Light Radio. This prompted her to go back to her old love of writing songs in their bare essence on guitar. When she spotted an amplifier with the name Sophia Electric on it, she quickly put two and two together. She consumed a lot of music along the way; the deft experimentalism of Arthur Russell, the bare-boned songwriting approach of Big Thief and Elliott Smith, the lush, nocturnal atmospherics of Beach House and Mazzy Star… and yes, the commanding pop aura of Beyoncé too. This confluence of different beats was forged into a singular vision.
Two years later, the album is finally finished. Winterson took her sweet time. Her fingerprints are all over Sophia Electric; she wrote, arranged and recorded most of the music herself. She then came with the idea to ask a handful of different producers to touch things up. “ I worked with Ben Westbeech (Breach) on ‘Remember’. Arne van Petegem helped develop ‘Military Man’, ‘Happened To Us’, ‘Make You Miss Her’ and ‘Sweat Heart’. The rest was done with Rimer in London. He also mixed the album."
Though the album represents an alchemy of many divergent ideas, the big challenge was to emphasize intimacy and tenderness. There’s a sense of space and openness throughout, allowing Winterson’s voice to navigate and achieve its full breadth of expression. "Sophia Electric has become a very diverse album. Some tracks are arranged with only guitar and some keys, others conceived carefully with layers of drums, synths and guitars. It’s lighter, more economical and more dynamic than all of my previous releases. Even though the themes are sometimes big or serious in nature, there is a playful and naive yearning simmering beneath.