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Rating: Sol Seppy is the pseudonym of Sophie Michalitsanos, a professional cellist, as well as a multi-instrumentalist and former collaborator with Sparklehorse.
After participating in a tour as a supporter for Radiohead, she finally secured a contract with Gronland label and has released this year, under the protection of her mentor Mark Linkous (from Sparklehorse, indeed) her debut “The Bells Of 1 2”. What strikes about the character, besides her undoubted attractiveness, is her arranging skill: each track is overwhelmed by a significant amount of sounds of all kinds, from the most acoustic and "real" to the more artificial ones, pure studio effects.
In this regard, Sophie is a surprising creature: she starts as a songwriter in the most traditional sense of the term, but it is very difficult to find a track on the record resembling a sparse ballad centered on voice and an instrument. Her voice (beautiful, warm, and sensual) always seems filtered, sweetened, without lacking intensity, and the arrangements transform song skeletons into hallucinations, feverish and whimsical. The result often suggests a cross between Portishead and Mazzy Star. The opening “1 2” sets the coordinates of the work: sweet intertwining keyboards (almost a more earthly version of Mum), a radiant chorus, where the voice is lost in a maze of dreamy vocals, to return (in a perfectly symmetrical way) to the keyboard sequence that brought it to light.
Her decadent romanticism is at the forefront in sad and melancholic piano ballads like “Human" or the desolate “Injoy”, whispered with a trace of voice to a distant love. Sometimes the tricks are a bit too evident: “Move” and “A To N” are practically a trip-hop ballad (the former) and a classical serenade (the latter), whose only peculiarity is being formally structureless: yet, the perfection of the arrangements and the heart-wrenching pathos of the singing (especially in the former) save these (less successful) attempts at innovation. In “Gold” the voice timidly and spectrally makes its way among the piano chimes until it is echoed by the brief lament of the cello. “Come running” recalls a pop version of Cat Power (even if the acoustic bridge verges on plagiarizing “Metal Heart”). The style is less focused on a track like “Love’s boy”, dangerously halfway between quirky pop and chamber music (due to the string arrangement), yet extraordinarily fascinating; it moves instead in much safer territories in the gloomy “Farewell your heart”, which effectively has the form of a regular guitar and voice ballad but is disturbed by a noir and aloof atmosphere, softened by the higher notes of the piano.
A classical piano loop introduces “Slow Fuzz”, which soon transforms into a smoky and nocturnal rock crescendo, six minutes of shivers. “Wonderland” is a vaguely Tori Amos-like ballad, where the singing, initially subdued, slowly gives in to another, lyrical crescendo. The final “Enter One” is an ambitious six-minute piano sonata, which, however, repeats, amplifying them, the insights already proposed in the rest of the album.
A slight (and forgivable) monotony does not prevent “The Bells of 1 2” from being a decidedly successful album: the brilliant cross between tender romanticism and a more overtly dreamy component makes it a high-class debut.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Human (04:28)
Hello, my name is human
And I come from love
Here on earth it's easy
To forget our home
We all remember
From time to time
Bring forth the beauty of your heart
This undying love is who you are
Don't look down
To reasons on the ground
Love will lift you home
To unbelief
We all remember
From time to time
Bring forth the beauty of your heart
This undying love is who you are
Don't look down
You are not alone
Love will lift you home
Love will make us home
Love will lift you out
Love will make us home
03 Come Running (03:27)
Come Running words
you call my name , come running
come running in my friend. if i was ever in need, i would be calling your name.
and if it's a sunny day tomorrow
we can relax by the sand, and i won't fall away from your shadow
AND ITS TIME TO UNVEIL THOSE BEAUTIFUL EYES THERE'S A WHOLE
LOT MORE THAN YOU REALISE - THERE'S A SHIFT GOING ON
THAT YOU FEEL INSIDE
AND IT'S TIME TO
OPEN YOU INTO THE LIGHT
CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE YOU ARE
IT BURNS INSIDE SO BRIGHT, CAN YOU SEE THE LOVE YOU ARE.
and if you want your name , it's coming. it's simply
Love, my friend, that let's you in
so come running and i will be calling your name.
and if it's a sunny day tomorrow, we can bring all the friends
around
and maybe we might go running through seas and skies about.
AND ITS TIME TO UNVEIL THOSE BEAUTIFUL EYES, THERE'S
A WHOLE LOT MORE THAN
YOU REALISE
THERE'S A SHIFT GOING ON THAT YOU FEEL INSIDE
AND IT'S TIME TO OPEN YOU
INTO THE LIGHT
CAN YOU SEE THE LOVE YOU ARE ?
IT BURNS INSIDE SO BRIGHT
CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE YOU ARE?
and you're looking on up to your home in the stars
remembering
what it's like
to be safe and warm in your daddy's arms.
and now it's you
who can enfold your wings round a broken one,
and it's you who needs your love
more than anyone
04 Move (03:25)
Are you waiting for somebody else to move
Don't you know in your heart is the power to change everything
Don't you know in your heart is the power to change everything
Time to return in a circle
Bout' to miss anything
Come to me sometime
I've been waiting for a long, long time
Give me some of your shine, shine
Maybe for all mine
I need you now tonight
I need you now tonight
Oh tonight
Are you waiting for somebody else to move
Don't you know in your heart is the power change everything
Don't you know in your heart is the power to change everything
Oh now it is time to move in unity
Time to return in a circle
'Bout to miss anything
Up in the fungi
Until you girrate
In the fresh air
Like an air balloon
Only with you
I just wanna be there with you
I just wanna be there with you
I just wanna be there with you, Kay
06 Injoy (04:30)
I've been around a long time
In search of home and heart
On cartoons and in aeroplanes
In paper chains and stars
And I am come to you
And I am one for you
And let the guards be terrified
I am my soul's belief
And now, there's nothing left to hide
I am wild and I am free
And I am come to you
And I am one for you
I'm injoy as the morning spirals open
And the clouds melt away into water
And I am come to you
And I am one for you
07 Slo Fuzz (06:25)
I wish i could say the same of myself, that i'm in perfect harmony.
That i do not use the sword of my tongue to lash out at the enemy.
That i do not fear the light.
That i do not stray from Love as my guide.
That i'm at peace inside.
And all the pieces are fine - they dance and sing in unity.
A dum dum dum dee daa da deee.
I wish I could fly through the sky and the moon above me.
I wish I could talk to the Gods and the birds above me.
It's not fun to be so blind.
To be so blind.
I wish i could stay in the present day not lapsing into vicious sleep.
Cause it gives my bones a brand shiny new home - one that does not confine me.
And i do not fear the Light.
And i do not stray from Love as my guide.
And i'm at peace inside.
And all the pieces are fine. They dance and sing in unity.
A dum dum dum dee daaa da deeeee.
I wish I could fly through the sky and the moon above me.
I wish I could talk to the Gods and the birds above me.
It's not fun to be so blind.
To be so blind.
Slo fuzz in the morning,
where i can tempt you to be my air...
But it's not enough to be lovely when i feel other things i can not share.
That i can't.
11 Wonderland (03:33)
I found this picture the other day
It was so amazing I hung it up
My friends said "That's by the girl next door
She doesn't think she's very good at all."
And then one day Sarah came around
"Please would you take that thing down?"
She blacked it out and then she ripped it up
And hid herself in a paper bag
Roses are red and the dinner is done
You seem to be happy and so in love
She had disappeared long ago
Waiting for Arthur to come through her window
Here I am, my love
But nobody came and the mist fell down
Her friends transformed into cane toads
Sitting in a room knowing all's a gas
And Arthur was replaced by a spacecraft
You want the kiss of life
Open up your heart
Then step inside
And you'll be alright
You want the kiss of life
Open up your heart
And step inside
And you'll be alright
But she can sing like my shore
It calls her name it's pure and true
And she runs toward this unbelievable love
A love she's dreaming of
My child I am you
I am
12 Enter One (06:15)
After a storm
I want to be brave
And keep you warm
And not fade away
As we float from the shore
Into the light
Into the unknown
Like thousands of lanterns
Glowing with grace
In glorious silence
Descending through space
To a friend
A sister in need
Who is not alone
And they are surrounding her
And they will enfold her outstretched hand
In our love
Into the light
It's hard to believe
It's always been ours to give
And to receive
I want to be shameless like the sun
Moving into you
Entering light
Welcome
Inch'Allah, Inch'Allah
Enter one amazing grace is pouring down
Fear not this light
We are of this light divine
So come
We move as one
Amazing grace is pouring down
Fear not this light
We are on this light divine
Welcome
Enter one
After a storm
I wanna let go
Of the things that I’ve done
Without any worry
I wanna come home
Into the light
Into the unknown
I want to be shameless
Like the sun
Moving into you
Enter light
Welcome
Inch'Allah, Inch'Allah
Enter one
Amazing grace is pouring down
Fear not this light
We are on this light divine
So come
We move as one
Amazing grace is pouring down
Fear not this light
We are on this light divine
Welcome
Enter one
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