Unmistakably Nordic in flavor, Sofia Talvik somehow still conforms to American interpretations of her own original music, a North Sea siren blending sparkle and melancholy, creating a special niche of folk music.
I’ve been performig all the songs from my latest album “The Owls Are Not What They Seem” live from different places in the US during my Drivin’ & Dreaming Tour and published them on YouTube.
This is the twelvth and final track from the album – Nothing Quite So Gentle, performed in the Palm Cemetary in Winter Park, Orlando, Florida. To record a video in a cemetary might seem like a werd idea, but I’ve always loved the eerie look of the spanish moss hanging off the trees and the old tomb stones, and the first line in the song is “If you’re one step from the grave…”.
This is probably the TOANWTS Acoustic video album version that is the most different from the album version since I originally wrote the song on the piano and had to re-interpret it for the guitar. Kinda like a cover of myself. With this song the Acoustic video album is now complete. I’ve recorded the 12 original songs in almost as many states during my 2011-2013 tour and I hope you enjoyed the scenery as well as the acoustic versions.
Every year on Christmas I write small Christmas Poems on the presents to my family. The poems are small cute clues to what the present might be and we read them out loud so everyone can try to guess whats inside.
I want you to join me and write some clever and cute poems this year. Enter my Christmas Poem Competition and write a poem for a present to a family member or friend and I will choose a winner. Encourage your family members to do it as well, maybe it will become a tradition in your family as well!
You might also use it for shopping inspiration, maybe you will find a few things that are just begging for a poem. You don’t have to be Dickens and nothing really has to rhyme. Just give it your best shot and have a good time! Hey, what do you know, there’s a poem right there!
Hey! It’s my birthday and I want to give YOU presents!
Oh, so now you think I’m all old and crazy all of a sudden? Fear not, I’m still a young woman in my best age. But since most of you guys can’t be here to celebrate with me I want to make this a special day for all of us anyway.
I’m putting all my albums on “Pay What You Want” and yes you can pay me anything from $1.000.000 to zero, nada, zilch, nothing. How’s that for a birthday bash??
“…Not dread but a connection with our past is what we feel, a thread running back to the artless creatures we once were when we first heard the oboe-like notes from the Great Horned Owl. In Paleolithic times, we suspected omens in its voice, heard in it questions we were unable to articulate, but which have stayed within us, incomplete and taunting. We are certain that ancient, taloned bird sees what we do not, knows what we never will. And some night, silent as a gliding feather, its immensity will engulf us at fireside to tell us things we want to know as well as those we don’t. In the shadowed forest we’re pulled by that lurking and alluring ghost and we are enthralled.”Welcome to Twin Peaks: Access Guide to the Town
2011 was a busy year for me. I worked hard to get an artist visa to the US, preparing for a tour that might go on for as long as two years. At the same time I wrote and recorded a new album. Now that I’ve landed in my tour in the US it’s also time for my new album to land. “The Owls Are Not What They Seem” is a collection of 12 new songs. My musical journey started out in 2004 when I recorded Blue Moon and me and my musicians all gathered in a basement studio in Stockholm recording acoustically and almost all the instruments at the same time. After that I tried a more common way of recording in layers, adding instruments upon instruments. For my third album I hired a producer, Tobias Fröberg and for my fourth album Florida i experimented with a bigger soundscape with more drums than I had ever used before.
For “The Owls Are Not What They Seem” I went back to basics. After having done an acoustic solo tour for my album Florida Acoustic in 2010 I felt I was in my best element when I was playing and singing at the same time without the restrains of headphones and click-tracks. So I decided to make an ablum that was the essence of that me. Just something I could record in my bedroom without the pressure of a big production, time and opinions from others. All the songs on “The Owls Are Not What They Seem” are recorded that way. Me – playing and singing at the same time, then sparsely adding other instruments to enhance and highlight where I thought it was needed. My goal was to keep it down and make an acoustic album with a live, organic feel to it. I had no interest in changing the world or inventing something new. I just wanted to make a beautiful acoustic album. And here it is: “The Owls Are Not What They Seem”
You can now pre-order the album here. You’ll get a free track straight away. Physical signed albums will only be available through my website until the release. I also have two special guests on the album; Martin Hederos is playing the piano on “Nothing quite so gentle” and Pontus Borg has lent his voice to “7 miles wide”. Please hit the share button to tell all your friends.
