Sophie’s Self-Titled Final Album to Posthumously Release on September 27
Sophie, the Grammy-nominated musician who died in a climbing accident in 2021, is set to release her self-titled final album on September 27 via Transgressive and Future Classic.
The artist, who mixed pop sensibilities with an experimental electronic edge, was working on “Sophie” with her brother Benny Long for years, and the album was close to completion prior to her death. Long, who is billed as co-producer on the project, helped finalize it alongside her closest associates.
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The first single from the project, “Reason Why,” accompanies the announcement of “Sophie.” The track features BC Kingdom and Kim Petras, who worked with Sophie during her career and honored her during her Grammy acceptance speech in 2023.
Throughout her career, Sophie helped redefine the limits of pop music, often pitting sugar-sweet sounds against mechanical, harsh instrumentation. She came to prominence with the singles “Bipp” and “Lemonade,” and released her only solo album “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” in 2018. That album was nominated for best dance/electronic album at the Grammys.
Transgressive released a statement explaining that Sophie’s family reached out to them to assist in releasing the final album. Sophie’s family released its own statement explaining why they wanted to put out the project. Read the full statement below:
“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 center 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.
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. Emphasizing 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.
Sophie gave all of herself to her music. It’s here that she can always be found.”
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