 Halfway the ninetees of the last century Sophya was started in Israel by Idan Karutchi (who had been busy with his project Manic Depression) and Sonja Rozenblum (lead singer in several bands). When they met, it was clear they had some same influences (mostly eightees wave bands, like the Israelian Minimal Compact) and the same ideas of what a new band should sound like. With Eliad Wagner (keyboards), Shai Ledder (bass) and Hagai Shlezinger on drums the first Sophya line-up began to play in 1998.
At the end of the next year they decided to move to Amsterdam, with the hope the develop the band further on from outof the Dutch gothic scene and a meeting with Ronny Moorings (Clan of Xymox) was a good start while Ronny was impressed by their recordings and decided to sign the band on his Xymox control label, which got the band represented in Europe (Pandaimonium recoirds) and the US (Metropolis) as well.
About the bandname Sonja tells: "When we realized that we are actually recording material for an Album we had to give it a name. 'Sophya' was chosen since it is the ancient Greek term for "the essence of wisdom". We felt very connected to this original meaning to a word that is used so often without thinking of it's true meaning.We wanted to bring it back some of it's glory and hopefully try to reflect some essential wisdom in our creation".
In fact Ronny Moorings did the same thing for Sophya as Brendan Perry of Dead can Dance once did for his band Clan of Xymox, back in the eightees; introducing them to a label, which was in Xymox' case 4AD and it's not just a coincidence, knowing Sophya is a band who could have been on that label too, with influences like Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil and the mentioned Dead can Dance. But Sophya is not just another retro band. In their sound a certain echo of the eightees is noticed, but they combine that sound with a lot of modern influences and the unique and beautiful, characteristic voice of leadsinger Sonja.
In Amsterdam they continued recording, with now an album release in mind. Late 2000 the debut 'The age of Sophya' was released and most of the critics were positive. Besides one cover of Minimal Compact, 'Inner station', the songs were written by Idan and Sonja. From the wonderful opener 'Pale blue moon' the Sophya sound grabs you and the album takes you along on a journey, in which a lot of impressions come together. With the influences mentioned and also bands like The Cure and Joy Division seem to have had their impact on Sonja and Idan's vision and expression of music. Ofcourse they were happy to be asked to contribute to the Cure tribute album 'A night like...' for which they recorded the song 'The figurehead'.
The following year Sophya made appearences at the Gotham festival in Amsterdam and Terra Gotha in Vlissingen and also did a tour in Israel. The band's line-up was now reduced to just Idan and Sonja, in 2002 The Haze aka Mario Usai joined them and you could say it's a small world, knowing that Mario was in the band of former Clan of Xymox guitarplayer Paul Whittlesea and later replaced Paul on guitar in the live line-up of Clan of Xymox, which he still combines with playing bass guitar in Sophya.
Sonja Rozenblum, Gotham festival, 2001 (picture: Wim de Nooyer)
After spending some time back in Isreal, Sonja and Idan returned to Amsterdam. They had been working on their second album 'Dream', being the only two remaining members of the band. They wanted to take all the time to record the songs they had written for the follow up of the debut.
“In fact the writing process continues”, tells Sonja, “while ideas come up at any moment, but it's important to take time to work them out and not to depending on circumstances only. Some artist might need a certain mood to write in, but that doesn't work for me. Ofcourse the mood you're in is a certain influence, but I'm not depending on it, while it's more like you're using all experiences and phases you went through in your material, meaning all I've written is personal in a way, but not just reflecting the mood I'm in”.
With the second album 'Dream' Sophya doesn't seem to have any problem in answering to the great expectations the debut has created. Just like the first album, the reactions are mainly positive and 'Dream' is certainly comparable to 'The age of Sophya', in a way it's not more of the same, but moving on in the same direction with songs as 'Blossom', the instrumental soundtrack-like titletrack and 'Captive beauty'.
Meanwhile Sonja's voice can also be heard on 'The same dream' by Clan of Xymox and 'Breaking the silence' by Perfidious words, while Idan contributed a remix of 'Into her web' for the 'Remixes from the underground' cd by Clan of Xymox. The new Sophya line-up with Mario on bass tours again in Israel and plays several gigs in Europe.
(Picture: Nicola Jockel)
2006 was a good year for Sophya. The video shot for the song 'More' could be seen at MTV and the song also was picked up by Vpro's 3voor12 on Dutch radio. New chances to reach more people, and a new label, Mutanjasz, to keep on going this direction. With 'Third wish' a new album was released and the critics were more positive than ever before. Sophya managed to evolve as band, but without losing their sound or vision on what music should be like. According to Sonja and Idan it's about music, instead of about image or whatever which comes along being an artist. And so can be heard listening to their albums.
They also covered one of their favourite bands again. While Sonja, Idan and Mario were enjoying a glass of whiskey listening to Joy Division's 'Transmission', Sonja remembered once singing this song and they decided to record it for the 'Third wish' album. They mansged to keep the original soul of the song alive, but it sounds likea Sophya song.
You can say it was about time Sophya was given some airplay, but working on material you can never tell what will follow; that's why Idan and Sonja just went on doing things their particular own way and they just enjoy the well deserved success of their latest release. Success that has been build up for about ten years now, thanks to a very good reputation as a liveband. Sophya is sure one of the best live performers in the Dutch gothic area; a band you certainly should see on stage.
Sophya official site
[Nick]
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