A final album from SOPHIE will be released later this year. Find all the details below.
READ MORE: 15 essential songs from SOPHIE, the artist and producer who changed the course of pop
Three years on from the pioneering DJ, producer and hyper-pop trailblazer’s death, SOPHIE’s family and close collaborators have finalised an album she was working on at the time of her death.
The first taste of the project, which will be titled ‘SOPHIE’, was released today (June 24) in the form of a new song titled ‘Reason Why’, which features BC Kingdom and Kim Petras.
‘SOPHIE’ will be released September 27, via her label Transgressive Records, and is produced by her long-time collaborator Benny Long.
A statement from SOPHIE’s family read: “When we, Sophie’s family, took our first steps towards bringing this project to fruition we contacted the dear friends with whom she envisioned the album. We wrote, “We have been finding comfort in the music Sophie left us, it is a gift that we truly cherish as we try to find a way forward, with Sophie forever at the centre of our worlds.”
“Sophie didn’t often speak publicly of her private life, preferring to put everything she wanted to articulate in her music. It feels only right to share with the world the music she hoped to release, in the belief that we can all connect with her in this, the form she loved most.
A message from SOPHIE’s family. pic.twitter.com/j1N0PHH9F4
— MSMSMSM_FOREVER (@msmsmsm_forever) June 24, 2024
The statement continued: “This album has always told the story of Sophie’s musical journey, a cacophony of skill and creative vision eclipsing time and genre. Her unique sound world moves at an emotional level, encouraging the listener to intuitively embrace the ever-evolving landscape of light and dark, soft and hard, to the end of self-love and joyful self-acceptance. Emphasising contradictions of sound and material, Sophie’s work supersedes the pure aural to create the dimension she dreamed of.
“Now, it holds another poignant meaning, it tells a life story, from mysterious unknown, through wild clublands, to euphoric immateriality.”
They concluded: “Sophie gave all of herself to her music. It’s here that she can always be found.”
The announcement follows a series of cryptic teasers uploaded to social media last week, with new accounts being set up under @MSMSMSM_FOREVER, referencing SOPHIE’s former online handle.
SOPHIE was 34 when she died in a fall from a hotel rooftop in Athens in January 2021.
As a producer, SOPHIE rose to prominence as part of the pioneering pop production team PC Music in the mid 2010, working with the likes of A.G. Cook and Charli XCX, who paid tribute to the producer on her latest album ‘Brat‘, through the song ‘So I’.
The track explores XCX’s regrets at the insecurities that prevented her from working as closely with SOPHIE as she wanted to. “There was a lot of distance between us because I was in awe of her and wanted to impress her,” she told The Face earlier this year.
“She believed in me in ways that I didn’t believe [in] myself. But I felt like I would never be interesting enough to operate in her world outside of the studio, which was the safe space where we could connect and bond over music.”
SOPHIE album artwork. Credit: Press
St Vincent also paid homage to the late Scottish electronic music pioneer on her latest album ‘All Born Screaming’, released in April. Annie Clark was moved to write the track ‘Sweetest Fruit’, after reading an article about the producer’s tragic death.
‘SOPHIE’ will follow the artists’ only solo album ‘Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides’, released in 2018. In a four-star review, NME praised the record for “crossing boundaries of pop music and chasing transcendence”, with El Hunt writing: “SOPHIE achieves the rare feat of making abstract, difficult electronic music that hits you straight in the heart.”
You can pre-order SOPHIE here.
The post SOPHIE’s posthumous final album is coming later this year appeared first on NME.
