Galway's Maija Sofia announces the release of ‘O Theremin’, her first new music since 2019’s critically lauded and Choice Award nominated album Bath Time.
Written during a state of winter isolation in a drafty 300-year-old seaside house in Ireland's strange, deep south, ‘O Theremin’ is a striking new direction in Sofia’s sound. Inspired by Leon Theremin, the Russian inventor responsible for the early electronic instrument of the same name, ‘O Theremin’ is an uncanny ode to the feelings of loneliness and estrangement brought on by spending too much time alone with the rabbit holes of the internet.
Sofia’s first release with a full band arrangement (Solamh Kelly on drums, Chris Barry on bass & Ruth Clinton on theremin, ) ‘O Theremin’ departs from the nocturnal folkloric tones of Bath Time and creates an experimental pop sound-world recalling the likes of Cate le Bon and early Laurie Anderson while remaining entirely her own.
Speaking of the single Sofia explains, ‘O Theremin was written after a prolonged period of isolation. I was living alone all winter in a very big old house so close to the sea that at night it felt like the waves were lapping against its walls.
"I think the loneliness we collectively experienced over the last two years was exacerbated by the strangeness of life on the internet, where everyone is simultaneously watching and being watched. "The figure of Leon Theremin intrigued me, as well as inventing the first mass-produced electronic instrument (the strange ghostly theremin, ) he also invented the first audio surveillance device, which hung on the wall on the US Ambassador’s office in Moscow unnoticed for 7 years in plain sight. I was thinking about haunting, and listening, and what it is to be witnessed, what it is to be invisible, how strange it is to make sounds into an empty room, and how thrilling it can be to finally be heard."
The accompanying video for ‘O Theremin’ - a haunting, kaleidoscopic dreamscape featuring a tarot reading - was directed, shot and edited by Zoe Greenway on an unseasonably stormy day in Kinsale.
To celebrate the release of ‘O Theremin’, Maija Sofia will appear live with a full band on the following dates, tickets for all shows can be found here.
5th August - London, The Slaughtered Lamb
11th August - Kilkenny Arts Festival, Cleere’s
13th August - Limerick, Pharmacia14th August - Cork, Coughlan’s
15th August - Kinsale, Prim’s Bookshop (solo )10th September - Dublin, Dun Laoghaire Folk Festival 25th September - Night & Day Festival
