Both out recently

This:

and this:

Big up Ireland, I love you.

I got a bunch of copies of my new tape with Delphine Dora from Was ist Das? who are based in Arizona nowadays. Let me know if you want one:

Think Away 2017 – Cassette by Sophie Cooper and Delphine Dora £6 + P&P

 UK P&P

 Europe P&P

 ROW P&P

Here’s what Tristan Bath at The Quietus had to say about it:

“Having relocated from Yorkshire to Arizona, the magnificent Was Ist Das? label finally presents the follow up to Distance Future, the debut recording by Delphine Dora and Sophie Cooper. As the label notes, despite being recorded in church, this outing has more of a “cellar feel”, eschewing the choral rituals of the first in favour of even floatier mood pieces, such as the sparsely lush piano-and-harmonium opener, ‘Stillness and Movement’.

Cooper has been notably more in touch with her trombone playing during the intervening period (she’s even been periodically holed up in red phone boxes across the British Isles with her ‘bone, issuing the phone number online, and waiting for the public to phone in and get their own personalised ‘Dial-a-bone’ message), thus it plays a bigger role on this album. Second track ‘Des Roches Et De L’Eau’ summons a sort of Rotterdam port of trombone blasts echoing manically over each other. Later MIDI clarinet chirps leap off ear-scraping percussion scrapes on ‘Distinct Kinds’, Delphine Dora’s strangely alluring siren voice wordlessly searching beneath. Side B is entirely made up of 19 minute epic ‘Invisible String’, a zen trip into loop pedal deep space, the duo summoning some intensely pagan wordless chants alongside some analogue drones, ultimately ushering in Cooper’s mournful brass instrument for an utterly fragile finale.”

I’m performing a new kinda-DIY multi speaker trombone and electronics piece at this awesome looking conference at Huddersfield University on the 8th July. Here’s a blurb about what I’m doing:

“Sophie is a trombone player and finds the instrument incredibly intuitive to play due to it having a slide rather than fixed notes opening up a vast range of sounds. She considers the instrument to be closely related to the voice, which also has these possibilities and the combination of the two fascinating.

Sophie’s performance for AISS will incorporate trombone and vocal improvisations presented via lo-fi guitar amps, an idea resulting from a recent artist residency in Northern Ireland’s The Curfew Tower.”

More details about the conference here, maybe see you there!

https://inclusivesoundspaces.wordpress.com/

New live album featuring friends in Alsager near Stoke-on-Trent. CDR available on the ever giving Wild Silence label. 

CLOUDS ONCE BEFORE MOLTEN ROCK
– an ensemble improvisation by Stuart Arnot / Sophie Cooper / Delphine Dora / Andy Jarvis / Kelly Jayne Jones / Joincey / Mike de Oliveira

Live in Alsager (August 2016)

Players :

Stuart Arnot – trumpet, walkman
Sophie Cooper – trombone, electronics, vocals
Delphine Dora – vocals, computer, MIDI keyboard, percussions, electronics
Andy Jarvis – violin, percussion, vocals, tapes
Kelly Jayne Jones – flute, singing bowls, rocks
Joincey – snare drums, bells, dictaphone
Mika de Oliveira – cello, percussion, koto, flute, vocals

Artwork : Dovile Simonyte

Also on Wild Silence is the incredible album by Andie Brown and Sharon Gal called Mami Wata, seriously good. Highest recommendation from me and all that, buy both of these CDRS!

The Slowest Lift aka Julian Bradley and I had some play on the Late Junction, BBC3, last week. Listen again by clicking this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08t4tbs

Thanks to the producer of the show, Alannah, for having us on there.

I HAVE SOME STUFF FOR SALE! But not much. Everything here is £6 each plus the postage, see bottom of post for those prices.

Think Away with Delphine Dora I’m assured is in the post from Ned over in America so if you want to hold out until that one shows up as well just drop me an email sofiesea@gmail.com and we’ll sort something out. Likewise this live CD I’ve just had out called Cloud Once Before Molten Rock but am waiting to come from France.

I’ve not done paypal buttons because it’s a long winded pain to do on wordpress so if you want anything email me: sofiesea@gmail.com. Thank you for your custom x – Sof

Kit Records tape compilation: 

From the label: “It’s fun arranging such brilliant songs performed by your friends. Spanning strung out folk, African acapella, recumbent psych, extended ragas and paranoid glitch, ‘Radio 15’ comprises live recordings made by Kit Records in the NTS Live studio during 2015.

Opening with the homespun blues freakouts of Sophie Cooper, this tape soon goes all dreamy under the mystical bow of Cara Stacey, before Jam Money’s heady brew of bass clarinet, bowed guitar plus assorted bells and whistles. Side B begins with the timeless beauty of rubab master Liam Rees, who is then joined by his virtuosic equal on the tabla, Sarathy Korwar. Devon Loch and Cosmic Neighbourhood provide a psychedelic outro tinged with playful melancholy and naive improvisation.”

The Blow Part 3 – Sophie Cooper and Julian Bradley album on Front and Follow 

From the label: “Front and Follow present the third in our series of split releases bringing together two of our favourite artists. Volume 3 features the wonderful Sophie Cooper and Julian Bradley.

‘The Blow’ project brings two artists together to formulate a collaborative release of their own making. Each artist has a side of audio to do whatever they want with. The two artists are encouraged to work together on the release, but the length and depth of this collaboration is completely up to them and agreed on a release-by-release basis – there are no set parameters, no fancy rules, no memorandum of understanding, no initiation ceremonies.

Each edition of The Blow comes on limited edition cassette with artwork by letterpress artist David Armes of Red Plate Press (redplatepress.tumblr.com), and download.

Bradley and Cooper approached creating their submission to ‘The Blow’ series with the cassette format very much in mind, collaborating fully on each track throughout the album by means of file sharing. The duo had the concept of weaving pieces together both in the sense of musically flowing the tracks into one another and by reintroducing motifs and imagery throughout the entire album. As such, the recordings are intended to be played as two distinct sides of a tape, rather than hearing the tracks individually on the digital version.

Julian Bradley is a founder member of Vibracathedral Orchestra, solo as The Piss Superstition, in Never Rad with Luke Poot, and a past member of The Negative Kite. His sound has been described as music that’s eroded and smeared until its original content is obliquely hinted at or lost.

In collaboration with Sophie Cooper, a musician interested in reimagining the conventions of song writing through incorporation of drones, weird noises and alternative vocal approaches (and collaborator with Delphine Dora and United Bible Studies), the duo have created a series of pieces where fuzztone and feedback patterns pulsate, sweet vocal lines play with repetition and a sense of maximalism is achieved.

In 2016 Supernormal Festival commissioned Sophie Cooper to create a new duo work for performance and her first choice for collaborator was Julian Bradley. The commission was successful and Bradley / Cooper choose to continue the duo beyond this live performance, and are now a permanent collaboration under the name ‘The Slowest Lift’.”

Count The Days EP on Rural Colours – long sold out from the label! 

From the label: “Having caught Sophie Cooper live a few times over the past couple of years we are pleased to announce her debut Rural Colours outing in the form of ‘Count the Days’. Sophie’s previous work has often focused on guitar as the main instrument, however as a trained trombone player, she has recently begun to explore the possibilities of this instrument, the pure yet deep tones being a natural ally for drone work.

Using the trombone alongside her ethereal vocal style, loop pedal and a couple of other gadgets, Sophie has created an atmospheric collection of pieces inspired by thoughts she had after a natural funeral ceremony she attended in the Hope Valley, a beautiful spot in Derbyshire. Captured by the idea that everything is eventually forgotten and recycled, Sophie has run with this concept in terms of creating loops and motifs that themselves are repeated and worked upon, the new ideas eventually engulfing the old.

The EP also features recordings of Sophie’s Grandad who worked in London as a piano player for silent films. With such a back story, the short vocal fragments act as a reminder to Sophie as well as the listener to always keep practicing and learning.”

UK SHIPPING COSTS:
CDR / cassette £1.50 + £0.50 per additional

EUROPE SHIPPING COSTS:
CDR / cassette £4.50 + £0.50 per additional

REST OF WORLD SHIPPING COSTS:
CDR / cassette £5.50 + £1.00 per additonal

The end of May? hope so

Supporting the lovely Richard Dawson next week in Newcastle at his album launch party, so excited 🙂

New Twin Peaks is good

Really into making pickles at the min

New albums out later this year – it’s the first time I’ve had my music on a 12 inch vinyl object so very happy: “Divine Ekstasys” with Delphine Dora on Feeding Tube Records and “The Slowest Lift” (guess it’s self-titled?) on VHF

Finished a solo trombone album last week: The Curfew Tower Recordings more about that some other time.

Other music I like at the moment includes – samandtheplants Flaming Liar, Dale Cornish Aqal, Daniel Bachman self-titled, Clout then Grappling Big Red Tower.