Sopraterra - Seven Dances To Embrace The Hollow [Transparent Purple vinyl]

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: PE042LB006
Barcode: 5051142062437
Release Date: 14 Mar 2025
Genre: Experimental/ Ambient/Baroque/Drone

* Edition of 200 vinyl (Transparent Purple vinyl) incl. Download code.

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. 

* Jointly published by La Becque Editions, the label arm of high-profile artist residency program La Becque, and Präsens Editionen
* Artwork by Nicola Genovese

Press / Promotion
* Album campaign via independent PR outlet Unsung Hunger
* In addition, the album will be promoted through La Becque, Präsens Editionen and its in-house magazine zweikommasieben, as well as Magda Drozd and Nicola Genovese
* Präsens Editionen / zweikommasieben mailing list = 2000 subscribers

Social Networking
Instagram
@la_becque – 24’400 followers
@zweikommasieben – 10’500 followers
@praesenseditonen – 2’300 followers
@magda_drozd_ – 3’100 followers
@genovese.nicola - 2’700 followers
@sopraterra_sound - 1’100 followers

Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/praesens_editionen – 2’800 followers
https://soundcloud.com/magda-drozd – 250 followers

Tracklist
1 The Second Before Slipping
2 Unglued
3 Chest Mesh
4 The Primal Regret
5 Horizontal Gathering
6 Eternal Decay
7 An Elegy For the Phoenix