Sofie Winterson - Moral EP *cassette*
Limited edition
Sofie Winterson releases EP: Moral in collaboration with Benny Sings
Two recognized songwriters recorded the 4-track EP Moral together.
http://xlcr.nl/sofiewinterson-moral
Sofie Winterson, who writes and records with fellow songwriter Benny Sings, sounds like a good idea in advance.
The result is in a way exactly what you would hope for from these two artists, but at the same time it is more than the sum of its parts. It turns out to be a golden combination: their mutual feel for electronic and handmade pop. Sofie's voice combined with that delightfully playful swing that always characterizes Benny Sings' music lifts the whole thing to greater heights.
Actually, there was no need for collaboration at the time. Both Sofie Winterson and Benny Sings only recently released highly acclaimed albums, respectively Sophia Electric (Excelsior Recordings) and City Pop (Stones Throw Records). You would think: go and promote them. Rest assured, they do. But artistic blood is thicker than water. Inspiration from these kinds of musicians cannot be restrained. This collaboration is logical and simply had to happen at some point, and everyone is happy about that.
Put two artists with a recognized knack for writing and a certain overlap in taste and approach in a room together, and it can spark artistically. Something can emerge that only those two can make. That is exactly what happens on Sofie Winterson's new EP. Her path recently went from a sensational afternoon concert in the middle of the main hall at Paradiso with the audience in a circle around her, via a few shows at the South By South West festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, to the studio of Benny Sings behind the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam. That's where it happened.
Benny Sings knows exactly why it works so well between the two of them: 'It was really cool to make this together with Sofie. I think our skills complemented each other perfectly, those songs wrote themselves. I'm happy with the result, they have become really classic songs. Sofie's voice comes forward very nicely.'
It's hard to choose from the quartet of tracks As Alive, Moral, Love Me Less and Be Bad. They are all four a perfect interweaving of the talents of Sofie Winterson and Benny Sings. That voice and that playfulness.
Sofie Winterson herself is at least as enthusiastic about the successful collaboration: 'I've wanted to work with Benny Sings for a while. I think he's a really good songwriter and producer. After making the album Sophia Electric, which I did the songwriting on my own, I thought it would be fun and inspiring to collaborate. Benny Sings agreed to first write a song together in the studio one day and then see how that would go before we made further arrangements. Within a few hours we almost had a song and the production finished, to which he said: "Come another day." At the end of each day we made a draft for yet another track that we were enthusiastic about and so we planned a day ahead until the EP was finished. The collaboration went super organically and easily and we are both very enthusiastic about the result.'
SOFIE WINTERSON:
Sofie Winterson creates her own musical world with atmospheric synths, electronic drums, guitars with lots of reverb and her enchanting voice. She has been inspired for her new music by a mix of shoegaze, dream pop and folk acts such as Mazzy Star, Beach House, Alvvays, Big Thief, Whitney and Real Estate. Since her first releases on Magnetron Music, her fan base has been growing steadily. She has played several times at the American showcase festival SXSW and toured extensively along the west coast. Sofie has also spent a large part of her time in Los Angeles since then, where she partly lives, works and has found like-minded people in her music. In 2015, she drew attention to herself with the beautiful video of 'Dreams', a melancholic coming-of-age video that was released via Nowness. The following year, she was part of the Red Bull Music Academy in Montreal and at the end of 2018 a new album entitled Sophia Electric was released via Excelsior Recordings.
Not only was Sofie Winterson's work well received as a solo artist, she also worked with great success on the album Imaginary Lines by Fatima Yamaha, the Close My Eyes EP by Rimer London and the single lift me from the ground by San Holo.