Composer, music producer, vocalist and pianist Sofia Dragt releases her new EP Islands Juni 18th. The first three songs have been written on the remote island of Fleinvaer in the north of Norway. The fourth and latest song ‘Out Of Town’ is the last song on this record.
As Dragt is very fond of Norway, she went there to get inspired, to unwind and to write music. With her portable recording setup in her backpack she traveled to Bodø and took the boat to the tiny island called Fleinvaer. She stayed in the beautiful residence ‘The Arctic Hideaway’, a self sufficient residence made by and for artists.
The latest single ‘Out Of Town’ was written when she got back to The Netherlands. For this one she made the connection between the Norwegian and Dutch islands and makes a Slow TV video of the Dutch islands. Slow TV, a populair television style in Norway. Film in its full length, without editing and can be described as ‘’marathon’’ television. A famous broadcast is the full train ride of Oslo to Bergen. It’s very calming and totally the opposite of the rapid social media videos we see these days.
‘I could sit on the highest point of the island of Fleinvaer for hours and just watch. For me this was Slow TV at its best. With the demo of the songs that I just wrote in my ears, I could try out if the songs work with that view, if it’s an added value to the surroundings and nature that I’m looking at. If it is, I’m on the right track. For me that’s a good way to try out my music.’ In that period of time she felt like experiencing the so called ‘quarter life crisis’ and that strongly influenced her while writing these songs.
The EP title ‘Islands’ is both literally and symbolic. With its symbolism, Dragt shows that we are all on our own island and always have to do our best to genuinely connect with one another.
Together with her single Out Of Town and the full EP she releases a Slow TV video of the Dutch islands in collaboration with Ruben Smit Productions (maker and director of nature documentaries ‘De Nieuwe Wildernis’ and ‘Het Wad’) and with that is has come full circle. And certainly because Dragt composed the soundtrack for the populair four parted series ‘Het Wad’ which had more than a million viewers per episode in The Netherlands.
Sofia Dragt balances her work between her popsongs and instrumental work for film and media. She recently wrote the song ‘Come Home’ for a Dutch insurance company tv commercial that became nr. 2 on the national Top40 Commercial charts and now has more than a million streams on Spotify. In 2018 she won she won the award for ‘Best Pop’ with the short film ‘Andras’ on the prestige Berlin Motion Picture Festival and a year later she was runner up for ‘Best Film Scoring’ during the California Independent Film Festival.
The EP Islands is available from June 18th on all streaming platforms and digitally for sale on Bandcamp.