Drawing from the full
A creative break had actually been planned. But with "Supermoon", Sophie Hunger has already released a new studio album that is characterized by confident expressiveness.
On Supermoon Sophie Hunger presents herself as a musician who has found herself - in the field of tension between singer-songwriter tradition, impulses from jazz and electronics as well as unconventional lyrics that are still of central importance. This is particularly evident in the title track, where she initially appears almost classical with her acoustic guitar and musing vocals. A pulsating beat, shimmering background sounds and subtle effects bring not only a contemporary component, but also a latent restlessness to a deceptively relaxed interplay between dark and light moods.
The folk influence of this song refers to the place of origin in California. The CD cover also features a psychedelically distorted picture of Sophie Hunger with a guitar, as if she were a West Coast folk singer from around 1970. Love Is Not The Answer whose title can be understood as a reversal of the slogan that is still used today. The humor is particularly evident in the accompanying video clip, which ends in a massacre of flowers. The piece is particularly funny musically Superman Womanwhich turns out to be a veritable stylistic potpourri.
However, most of the songs are characterized by thoughtfulness, a peculiarity that The whole world is reinforced by the choice of High German. "I watch CNN, beheaded Kurds and a world record in tracking", she sings with caustic laconicism. This is the only part of the album where Sophie Hunger then lapses into declamation, which seemed mannered in some earlier tracks (and probably also contributed a lot to her polarizing effect): "Uhhh, I'm so up-slurred!" And that fits in this context too, especially in the interplay with devoted "duuu-u-u-u-u-uuu" singing, which lacks any sentimentality. Sophie Hunger impresses to a large extent because she is a master of phrasing - and not just here.
Like Stephan Eicher, Sophie Hunger also cultivates multilingualism and forgotten songs. With La Chanson d'Hélène is a wistful love song that became famous as a duet by Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli. Sophie Hunger interprets it together with the former footballer and actor Eric Cantona almost as enigmatically poetic. Once again, however, a dialect song is particularly haunting. In Heicho Sophie Hunger discusses her life between a sense of home and restlessness. "But I'm sure I'll get stronger," she sums up dryly.
Sophie Hunger: Supermoon. Caroline/Universal. Information, videos and music excerpts: www.sophiehunger.com
