Sophie Koh will play a headline show in Adelaide next month to celebrate her 2017 album 'Book Of Songs'.
Following her performance in January fronting a jazz band as part of the Shànghǎi MiMi production at SydFest 19, Koh returns to Adelaide to perform her heart-string pulling and dreamy fourth album 'Book Of Songs', which was inspired by her travels to China as well as wanting to reconnect with her ethnic background.
Some of the tracks on the album share traditional 13th century Chinese poems (Gan Lan Shu - 'Olive Tree', and Ta De Mei - 'Her Beauty'), while there are also pop-infused classical tunes reflecting eastern Chinese classical music and stories.
“It's funny because this is my fourth album, but it's the first time where I truly have felt like myself.
“What I mean by that, is that for my first three albums I was [played] on Triple J and there was a certain sound that I was trying to achieve, and there was outside influences that told me [my songs] needed to have a certain vibe to [them].
“['Book Of Songs'] was actually the first time I had referenced old poetry from the 13th century, which was the height of poets and art in China during the Pinyin Dynasty.
“There were a lot of female poets and their poetry that was translated into English reminded me of how I write songs, and how it was a little bit subliminal and indirect and insular, which is kind of how I wrote lyrics in the past.”
Inspired by these poets, Koh used this prose to inspire her lyrics in 'Book Of Songs'. She then worked closely with producer J Walker from the band Machine Translations, and the album came to life.
“I wanted to work with him because I knew that he spoke Mandarin. So having a producer that understood both musically and lyrically [what I wanted] was really vital.”
Also influenced by 20th century Hungarian classical composer Béla Bartók, her single 'Tiger Not The Hare' was created after tasking herself to write a Bartók-inspired song.
A piano student during her childhood, Koh loved Bartók's melodies due to the Eastern style he composed. “Apparently the Hungarian folk music [produced] in the mountains was quite close to Persian and Eastern Chinese music. So I've always been drawn to that.”
Set to return to Adelaide to perform 'Book Of Songs' for the first time, Sophie is excited to share the experience with her audience.
“I've got a soft spot for Adelaide because it was the first place, when I got unearthed by Triple J, that I toured where the audience knew my songs and sung it back to me from the audience.
“I was a young duckling at the time and I didn't really know what that meant when your song is on national radio. So when I hit Adelaide and people were singing along, I thought: 'Gosh, that's bizarre'.”
