SOPHIE
EPISODE 34
Under the moniker SOPHIE, the reclusive musician Sophie Long made a huge, fizzy splash on the underground dance-pop scene during the mid-2010s with a series of singles that contorted elements of giddy Eurodance, Japanese, and Korean pop, and experimental sound design into blindingly neon-colored pop-art gems. Often associated with the similar-minded PC Music label, SOPHIE’s sophisticated, hyperkinetic productions typically feature high-pitched female vocals, sugary synthesizer textures, and beats drawing from underground dance music styles such as U.K. garage as well as mainstream pop and hip-hop. Instead of utilizing samples, she constructs her inventive tracks from waveforms, creating bizarre noises that resemble bubbling water, inflating balloons, elastic bands, and other non-musical sounds, adding to the surrealist, blatantly artificial quality of her music. This episode of Sound Portraits Radio is hosted by Doron Sadja.
