Released July 22, 2016
Vinyl / CD / Digital
Sophie Hutchings is a pianist and composer from Sydney. She began teaching herself piano at an early age before any tuition, developing her unique style through countless hours of secret practice. Hutchings has released three instrumental works to date, Becalmed, Night Sky and White Light, receiving fine recognition internationally for elegant and beautiful music compared to the likes of Nils Frahm, Max Richter, Peter Broderick and Dustin O’Hallloran. UK music bible Mojo had Becalmed as one of its top five independent releases for 2010, calling the album ‘grand’, ‘stirring’ and ‘vigorous’. The Guardian wrote that ‘her rippling piano has an intimate, contemplative quality. Other media have described Sophie’s music as ‘frankly amazing’, ‘unabashedly sincere’ and ‘always with a genuine sense of beauty’.
With Wide Asleep, Hutchings has taken her compositional scope into larger realms of sound and feeling. It is her most searching work, based on ideas on consciousness between sleep and wakefulness. In her most dazzling and poignant pieces to date, Hutchings’ piano lines extend with both electricity and elegance, winding through strings, textured ambience and choral voices. Reaching further with her music than ever before, Hutchings is in great company, recording Wide Asleep with Tim Whitten, best known for his nuanced and dynamic work with The Necks.
With Wide Asleep, Sophie Hutchings has once again taken her place as an accomplished and wonderfully engaging composer to fall in deeply with.