Alex Sopp: The Hem & The Haw
Sono Luminus

Upon learning that Alex Sopp would be releasing a solo album, I anticipated an instrumental set featuring contemporary classical pieces performed by the in-demand flutist and a small coterie of like-minded players. With her being a member of yMusic, The Knights, and NOW Ensemble, such an expectation wasn't unfounded. But in featuring ten self-written songs augmented by Sopp's arresting vocals, the genre-bending The Hem & The Haw turned out be completely different than expected, though not objectionably so (the album initially appeared on New Amsterdam last February but in digital form only, which opened the door for Sono Luminus to release it as a physical CD).

Like many an artist, Sopp's creative life was derailed by the pandemic and with a batch of time on her hands and with time slowing to stillness opened herself to the creative wellspring that would produce the album. Working with co-producer Thomas Bartlett and kindred spirits such as violist Nadia Sirota, violinist Austin Wulliman, trombonist Dave Nelson, clarinetist Hideaki Aomori, bassist Shawn Conley, drummer Michael Caterisano, and others, Sopp set about rendering her baroque, elaborately crafted set-pieces into physical being and supplemented her own singing and flute playing with whistles, synths, piano, and drum programming. Bartlett figured heavily into the sound design also in contributing keyboards, synthesizers, and percussion to the mix.

It was perhaps inevitable that Sopp would create The Hem & The Haw. While studying at Juilliard, she concentrated on flute, and it was that focus that opened a number of professional doors. But she'd always sung, and when playing with artists such as Sufjan Stevens, Ben Folds, and Paul Simon she contributed backup vocals and, deriving much satisfaction from that area of herself, developed greater confidence in her singing. The idea of a self-penned album featuring her flute and voice was, in hindsight, a natural next step. And how does it sound? Imagine some experimental future-pop hybrid of Laurie Anderson, St. Vincent, and Jane Siberry—which is not to suggest Sopp's album is a pastiche cobbled together from material by others but more that having absorbed music by artists like them she's birthed her own. In its dense swirl of acoustic and electronic textures and vocals, The Hem & The Haw is very much a playful product of its times.

The music's quirky tone, Sopp's idiosyncratic sensibility, and the album's glossy production values are evident the moment the dazzling title track opens the album, with her voice swooping between registers and flutes and whistles careening wildly. Slowing the tempo, “North Pole in Summer” opts for a less dense arrangement that allows for a more natural presentation of her voice; while immersed in the song's heaving lurch and chilly atmospheric textures, prepare to be mesmerized by the vocal barrage and the crowning touch of its “Who's to blame?” hook. Dialing things down to an almost ballad level, “Like a Vine” expresses romantic longing as its protagonist scans the skies and ponders the universe. Buttressed by a clockwork pulse, synths flicker as the singer surrenders to her muse (“My mind grows quickly like a vine / I wish my words would match my love for you / I know that someday we'll align”). In pairing her vocals with Sam Amidon's, “Ah Said Rosita” wails like some primal chant, but the song's most affecting moments are the gentler ones featuring Sopp's plaintive outpourings. Don't miss the transporting “Roses” either when the macabre waltz is speckled with electric guitar, mellotron, flutes, and clarinets.

November 2024