sophie solomon profile picture

sophie solomon

poison sweet madeira OUT NOW!!!

About Me


Buy Poison Sweet Madeira NOW ----------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------once upon a time....set out across the ocean in my peagreen boat... wearing big blackboots, over the knee..hurrah for the winter chillAND, HERE LAYDEEZ AND GENTLEMEN ------------------------------------THE FULL LA-DI-DA BIOG--------------------------------Sophie Solomon's voice is her violin. Whether she's performing with the LSO or playing with her own band, her music is a thrilling combination of technique and passion that refuses to be confined by the conventional parameters of the instrument. " When I play, the violin is like an extension of my body," she says. "I'm not thinking about anything else. I don't completely understand what happens but it's definitely as if the spirit takes over." Her unique musical vision reaches its full flowering on her self-composed Decca debut solo album Poison Sweet Madeira, an audacious mix of different styles and influences given purpose and unity by her extraordinary violin playing. It's a record that defies categorisation as classical influences collide gloriously with world music flavours drawn from Russia, eastern Europe, north Africa, gypsy music, tango and klezmer to create a vibrant musical portrait of one of the most adventurous artists of our time. Sophie Solomon began playing the violin at the age of two. At four she met Yehudi Menuhin and was taken to see the great cellist Rostropovich. For the first five years she played totally by ear, learning to read music at the age of seven. The violin was her life. She often exasperated her teachers by her inability to sit still and her exuberant habit of jumping up from her seat when excited by the music she was playing, but was gifted enough to rise rapidly through the National Children's Orchestra and ProCorda to become one of the most promising violinists of her generation. Yet by the age of 16 she had come to realise that there was a wider world of music waiting to be discovered. "I'm very passionate about classical music, but I was never completely satisfied by the classical world alone," she says. "I felt constrained by the fact that the music was written down and the strict parameters of the repertoire. I felt I had to step outside of that and find my own voice." While studying History and Russian at Oxford University, Sophie not only DJed drumnbass, but also developed a passion for other kinds of music such as Russian, klezmer, East European and gypsy styles. Three generations back her fathers family had been Jewish immigrants from Poland and Lithuania, and a year spent living in Russia, was a life-changing experience. She also travelled widely in Poland and Eastern Europe, absorbing new sounds and influences along the way. Sophie's experiences led in 1999 to her becoming a founder member of Oi Va Voi, one of the most exciting bands in Britain today (Daily Telegraph). "With Oi Va Voi I came back to the violin on my own terms," she says. "...It was liberating because I had the technique but felt I'd lost the constraints that classical training imposes." Famed for their live appearances and Sophie's on-stage pyrotechnics (one critic dubbed her 'the Keith Richards of the violin'), the band's debut album Laughter Through Tears received rave reviews, was voted in the top 10 albums of 2004 by the New York Times, and won them two nominations in BBC Radio 3's annual awards for world music.Sophie became increasingly in-demand, lending her violin playing to the likes of Rufus Wainwright, Heather Nova and Theodor Bikel and collaborating with Canadian hip-hop producer Socalled on the album Solomon & Socalled's HipHopKhasene (released on the German-based Piranha label) which won the German Record Critics Award for Album of the Year 2004. She has also taught at London's School for Oriental and African Studies and is on the artistic advisory committee of the Genius of the Violin festival, the only such event in the world devoted entirely to the instrument. A solo career which tied together her diverse musical interests was the next logical step. "Ive always been fascinated and inspired by a rich tapestry of music and the solo record has given me the opportunity to explore this. There's a deep Russian influence, a North African vibe, a drunken underground Romanian late-night bar feel and a Tom Waits sleaze factor creeping in I wanted an album that was diverse but had a cohesive voice, which is my violin." Produced by Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby (Finley Quaye/Oi Va Voi/Ben Taylor) and Marius de Vries (Madonna/Bjork/David Gray and a host of films such as Moulin Rouge), three tracks have guest vocals. A Light that Never Dies finds actor and fellow Russophile Ralph Fiennes lending his voice to words based on a poem by Russian Symbolist Alexander Blok. Burnt by the Sun, sung by Richard Hawley, ex Pulp and Longpigs guitarist and now one of the most talked about artists of 2005, is "based on Stalin's favourite tango and is the first thing I learned to play on the accordion," and KT Tunstall is simply stunning on Lazarus. "I've been obsessed with Russia since I was about nine - It's a country where life is lived in full colour with extreme polarities of experience - from pain and suffering to the heights of exuberant passion and wildness. Musically I hope there's something of those extremes on the record."

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/20/2005
Band Website: sophiesolomon.com
Band Members: well... there's me on the ol' runt bass (aka violin)------------------------- and live...such delights such delights my people: the boys of the band------ and verily you will see them on the road --- and you will be overcome with glee... they are nimble of finger. and fly of face.... oh yes.red leader's squadron (in no particular order...) squeezy ian 'shetlanding's a lost art' watson on accordion daniel glendining geeetar, vox, shirtlessness ali friend on showstopping bass (quite literally) the sugarush kid all the way from oz on the ivories, yes and the glockenspiel - that's mr grant very clever windsor to you and keeping it animal on the drums, mr stevie pilgrim
Influences: where do i start..?this week am loving kings of convenience song know-how that I discovered somewhere in the deepest regions of my i-pod...something about the bass on that.but otherwise... ooh mr nick cave and tom waits esq... soul coughing, esquivel, anything the kronos quartet get up to (especially if it involves clint PWEI mansell), richard hawley (the voice on that man), visotsky, theo bikel, shantel/bucovina club gypsy beats, hutz sergei (my doppel) & the bordellos,----------------dmitri shostakovitch, steve reich, martha wainwright, rufus too, antony, ha! and lamb of course. that track earl zinger did with koop modal mile... and mr devendra banhart - - how brilliant is he?then there's the worldy side of things - darko rundek, the klezmatics (still going strong and I love 'em so), vera bila, taraf, and oi va voi - for nostalgic reasons... AND my top tip...trumpeter avishai cohen (remember the name..)----------------------------------------------------- -------------film-stylee: anything kusturica, mikhalkhov's burnt by the sun, gadjo dilo, anything the amazing alberto iglesias lends his soundtrack wizardry to....-------------------------------------------------when i'm not getting carpal tunnel on here, i like books, remember them?....bely, bulgakov, dostoevsky, murakami, gogol, and poems by blok, tyutchev, akhmatova, esenin and cohorts....---------------------------------------------- then IN THEIR VERY OWN PEDESTAL POSITION----------- there's keith richards, yuri basmet, radu lupu & jaz coleman................
Sounds Like: violin, but not as you know it....nick cave stumbles across a drunken accordion player in a darkened underpass somewhere in the haze of a moscow dawn....chopin meets gotan on the steppes..all helped along by the delightful vocal talents of richard hawley, kt tunstall & ralph fiennes.
Record Label: Universal / Decca Records
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

New Facebook Music Page

Sophie's back in studio with Marius de Vries working on Album 2...Check out the new Facebook music profile for updates from the studio...and the road......
Posted by sophie solomon on Sun, 13 Jan 2008 04:48:00 PST

COME AND PLAY - - SOPHIE'S AMAZING RASPUTIN COMPUTER GAME

yes it's official - - they've made me my very own computer game!! come play my brand new rasputin shindig!! see how many vodka shots you can make the mad monks down + WIN WIN WIN!!! SOPHIE'S ...
Posted by sophie solomon on Tue, 14 Feb 2006 02:11:00 PST

ALBUM'S UP ON i-TUNES!!!

ooooooooooh wey!.... poison sweet madeira's released on itunes. you can buy it now now now!! over the supadupasupahighway gwan.... xx
Posted by sophie solomon on Wed, 08 Feb 2006 06:26:00 PST

MARTHA WAINWRIGHT is special guest for BARBICAN GIG

oooh great news - martha wainwright will be appearing as very special guest with sophie and the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican concert on February 23rd....
Posted by sophie solomon on Wed, 25 Jan 2006 10:50:00 PST

which dead russian composer are you?

no really... these normally rub me up the wrong way. but this is hilarious. it seems i'm the bastard lovechild of prokofiev and rimsky korsakov... or some such capricious flight of fancy Who...
Posted by sophie solomon on Tue, 06 Dec 2005 01:12:00 PST

special guest with Legendary Shackshakers / ROBERT PLANT!!!

ouch fuzzy head caffeine doesn't work any more... was special guest with legendary shackshakers of nashville tennesee openin up for robert plant @ hammersmith palais last night. all hobnailed hoedo...
Posted by sophie solomon on Mon, 05 Dec 2005 08:28:00 PST

NOW YOU CAN LISTEN TO TRACKS ON SOPHIESOLOMON.COM!!

it's all rather flash...those lovely people at Universal have uploaded tracks from Poison Sweet Madeira on to the website for your delectation...(or some such) so my peeps, audio stimulation is a m...
Posted by sophie solomon on Fri, 02 Dec 2005 06:15:00 PST

rufus ...will we ever do the agnus dei live i wonder?

so another tiptop exhilarating utterly genius night's entertainment courtesy of rufus at the hammersmith apollo as ever came skipping away with the seeds of inspiration sprinkled in my head as lib...
Posted by sophie solomon on Fri, 02 Dec 2005 06:21:00 PST

backstage at la cigalle/boule noire...

oooh it's a matter of minutes before we take the stage with this crazy afrobeat shrine synchro improv club mash-up... and back here sneaking a last minute blast of online action while from the stage,...
Posted by sophie solomon on Fri, 21 Oct 2005 12:55:00 PST