Sopraterra

On their debut album Seven Dances to Embrace the Hollow, Zurich-based artists Magda Drozd and Nicola Genovese, as Sopraterra, offer exactly what’s announced: seven compositions which, as they unhurriedly flow into each other, mark potential entry points to discover what might be lying underneath. By choosing Sopraterra, which translates to “above the earth” in Italian, as their shared project’s name, Drozd and Genovese indicate their own position in this archeological-looking endeavor, hinting at the potential for sonic explorations to produce deeply submerged discoveries.

Sopraterra’s object of inquiry isn’t easily grasped, traversing histories and blending influences alike. In a time-line-bending manner, musical signifiers from the past, along with specific tonal scales lifted from baroque and medieval music, get digitally synthesized. As sonic matter, the result is distinctly of today: a collection of electro-acoustic compositions that remain experimental at their core, referencing genres like post-rock, shoegaze, or psychedelic, while evoking aural memories of ancient times. Seven Dances to Embrace the Hollow pulls backward and pushes forward alike. Without ever forcing a didactic listening experience, musical motifs and archetypes are thoroughly investigated. But there is no scientific ambition at play here. Rather, the harmonies of late medieval Ars Nova or the transcendent elegance of Baroque chamber music lend their emotional qualities to perceived ideas of old times. Oscillating between ambient and drone, the album’s seven brooding compositions bring primal connections to a universally shared past to the surface. In its multi-directional positioning, Seven Dances to Embrace the Hollow makes the case for embracing the confusion of warped time and paying attention to all that’s rather felt than seen.

Sopraterra came about as a natural consequence of years of collaboration between Magda Drozd and Nicola Genovese. Drozd’s artistic practice spans music, sound art, and composition, creating alluring soundscapes that delve into intuitive and speculative perceptions of the world. After the albums Songs for Plants (2019) and 18 Rooms (2021), as well as the EP Viscera (2023), Sopraterra’s Seven Dances to Embrace the Hollow is her fourth appearance on Präsens Editionen. For the multi-instrumentalist Genovese, who also provided the cover drawing for this release, the project marks a return to music as a medium after building on his oeuvre as a visual artist over recent years. Sopraterra’s debut is jointly published by La Becque Editions and Präsens Editionen.