Berlin-based, Swiss singer, multi-instrumentalist and film composer Sophie Hunger today releases two new singles, both produced by MPG UK Producer Of The Year, Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, Fontaines DC) and released via Caroline International.

‘Security Check’ and ‘Rote Beeten Aus Arsen’ are lifted from Hunger’s soon-to-be-announced forthcoming seventh album, recorded with Carey (who also plays across the record) at Abbey Road Studios in continuous live takes. You can stream ‘Security Check’ here, with ‘Rote Beeten Aus Arsen’ available here.

The new album - Hunger’s first in two years - is her second collaboration with Carey, who also produced her 6Music-supported previous album ‘Molecules’. Informed by an exploration of the relationship between loneliness and the imaginary, Hunger’s latest material finesses the electronic direction she’s been pursuing with Carey ever since a relocation to Berlin.

The nagging unease of ‘Security Check’ - which Hunger identifies as a probe into “the absurdity of passing a security check whilst falling apart” - builds into an outro populated by Carey’s programming of whirring, space-esque electronics. It’s tempered by the glacial beauty of accompanying German-sung track, ‘Rote Beeten Aus Arsen’, whose title translates to English as ‘Beetroot From Arsenic”. Hunger says of the single; “It’s an attempt to write a love song to a mountain of ice. A quasi silent triumph of the beautiful over absolute rationality”. 

Both tracks bear the cerebral, meticulous approach which spills over into Hunger’s various multi-disciplinary projects. Her six solo albums to date have accrued over a quarter of a million sales, drawing her comparisons to contemporaries including Sharon Van Etten and PJ Harvey, with fans as wide-ranging as Lauren Laverne (who says of Sophie ‘I love this woman’), Steven Wilson (who tapped Hunger to guest on his UK Top 3 album ‘To The Bone’) and Eric Cantona (a long-standing fan of Sophie’s, who made a guest appearance to intone in French on 2015 album ‘Supermoon’). She made her debut at Glastonbury in 2010 as the first Swiss artist to ever play the festival (selling out 1,000 capacity venues with ease on the continent), and for the last few years has written fictional newspaper columns for leading German titles Der Spiegel and Die Zeit. 2016 saw Sophie also make her very successful first outing in film scoring, with her soundtrack for the Oscar & Golden Globe-nominated Ma Vie de Courgette earning her a Cesar nomination to boot.

 Singer-songwriter 

Author: Adam Bailey

Adam is a regular contributor for established press release distribution website Release-News.com. He writes on a wide range of topics including music.