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The Sophie Dunér String Quartet is a project of contemporary songs sung, composed and arranged by Sophie Dunér. The CD "The City of My Dreams" was produced/released by Sophie in December 2008. For purchase at http://cdbaby.com/cd/sdsq. For contact inquires: info@sophieduner.com
CRITICS & REVIEWS:
About the CD "The City of My Dreams":
Michael Haas, Producer , London ( Haas has produced artists such as Luciano Pavarotti & Plácido Domingo etc ) - "Initial impressions indicate a strong, very engaging and creative musician with excellent arrangements. Congratulations! You are clearly an artist of enormous talent and intelligence. I am admiring your artistry." Slim & Michael Coyle, Cadence Magazine ( USA )- " ....as a composer, lyricist and vocalist we pretty much have to acknowledge that Sophie is a genuine triple threat. Sophie has serious writing skills – both as a composer and as a lyricist. She also has impressive vocal chops. She can swoop from whisper soft to serious force in a heartbeat. Lets close by tipping our hats to her artistry – her voice remains strong and apparently capable of doing just about anything she wants. In some ways it reminds me of Sweeney Todd or something in that the music seems conventional on the surface but can be pretty disturbing below. Sophie is sounding more than ever like Kurt Weill is her uncle....... ". © Cadence Magazine 2009. Published by CADNOR Ltd. All rights reserved. Cadence: www.cadencebuilding.com ph: 315-287-2852).Vincenzo Roggero, All About Jazz Italia - " A multifaceted, fascinating singer and a witty self confident composer and sophisticated arranger. Her flexible voice is well suited either to sing Brechtian songs or Hollywood musicals and able to get nordic nocturnal moods, agile vocalise and Hendrix-inspired rhythms. Always with great confidence and extreme dexterity moving from very high registers to almost guttural sounds, keeping good care of swing and melody. "
Guido Zeccola, Tidningen Kulturen ( SWE )- " Between Kronos and Krause. Her vocal equilibrities and her capability to switch between different styles makes her one of the most interesting singers in our country.The voice rattles , falls to later catch itself in the higher register. It throws itself into black holes in between stones and rocks and spreads itself in thin ribbons of waves." Frank Becker, Musenblätter ( DE ) -"This exceptional Swedish artist is not only a vocal virtuoso in the delivery of the 17 pieces she composed, set the text, and arranged on this exhilarating album —she is also an outstanding talent, whose emphatic and thoughtful impression in the future of contemporary music, jazz, and song comes around very rarely. Sophie Dunér has attained the most unattainable, namely, to be at eye level with Kurt Weill, Lennon/McCartney, Gordon Sumner, Ricky Lee Jones and Kate Bush(only a small suggestion of what she has introduced in her renderings). Naturally,such comparisons are inadequate. Sophie Dunér has her own all-conclusive model,where elements from jazz and contemporary music are blended ingeniously, and at times embedded with fragments of pop music. Her texts – to be read inside the digital packaging – are just as intelligent as the entire conception. Her powerful string quartet has an essential wholeness, which contributes to its enchanting form. Crisp, powerful or flirtatious, whispering or roaring, with her impressive voice, she draws the delineations her tales of love and illusion, of winners and losers – straight from the head and the gut. It is worth listening to. The kiss of the muse for this fantastic album!" Tobias Fischer, Tokafi- "A stunningly multi-talented one-woman-army of singer, composer, painter and inventive arranger, equally capable of creating slow-dance mantras as well as brusquely avantgardistic vaudeville-style Lieder". Jason Dowd, The Expressionist ( USA ) - " Ever so often something unique and fresh comes showing it’s bright new face and that new something is Sophie Dunér. This Swedish born vocalist’s CD brings a lot to the table. First thing on the table is Sophie, with her wide octave range and sultry voice that can be loved by anyone who loves jazz or blues. The music composition is fantastic; it’s been a long time since I heard a vocalist use a string quartet laid out with vocals. When I listen to The City of My Dreams, it reminds me of an era with strong vocal artists, now legends, and powerful bands in the back. That’s right, it reminds me of 30s and 40s big band with the legendary sounds of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Johnnie Mathis, but with a modern tone. It’s a great combination to say the least. The vocals are clean and fun which is refreshing to hear; something other than the violence and hate that looms over today’s music.I love the album; it’s different and enjoyable. Sophie breaks out of the same old, same old and dares to be great in her album which I feel she pulled off successfully. It puts her apart from the crowd with the chance to shine. I give the CD 5 out of 6 stars." Massimo Ricci, Temporary Fault ( IT ) - " Brecht and Hendrix with strings in a jazz club....thick substance and a distinct personality, which distance her from the gazillions of clones infecting this genre, are present in several of these pieces. There’s much to savour in this excellent work, worthy of the utmost attention." Magnus Eriksson, Rootsy.nu ( SWE )- " Feline she switches from the low-key and intimate into virtuoso pirouettes high up in the registers, as swift and imperceptibly as she slides from semi-smoky cabaret atmospheres into expressive atonalities.". Eelco Schilder, Folk World ( DE ) - "A fabulous singer with strong techniques and the capability to sing out of the heart. A beautiful album with intriguing compositions".
About the CD "The Rain in Spain" ( C.I.M.P, New York 2006, with Rory Stuart, Matt Pennman & Kahlil Kwame Bell ) : Bill Barnes, Jazz.com: " Once in a while, out of the great sea of noise known as independent music, one encounters a rare and exotic species. Such a discovery is the enigmatic Swedish singer, composer, poet and painter Sophie Dunér. Prolific, fearless and quirky.Here she proves she can hold her own in the jazz world as well, backed by a New York-based minimalist trio.It is the perfect vehicle for Dunér's quasi-cryptic lyrics and edgy vocal style. Two Time Losers teeters between cabaret and bluesy acoustic jazz, rewarding the ear with a raw, fresh intensity that well serves the irony of the lyrics. Dunér's deceptively sweet voice betrays a dark undercurrent. This is East Village coffeehouse poetry-jazz, to be served with bitter espresso, trails of cigarette smoke and black fishnet stockings. Sophie, you are just too cool."Jazz.com, Bill Barnes-"This remarkable talent wears many hats, including painter, poet and arranger. Known primarily for her bold modern classical-oriented vocal numbers backed by string quartet or orchestra, she is a prime example of this new wave of "culturanauts," hurtling over commercial barriers and breaking down conceptual doors. Here Dunér demonstrates her range and flexibility by taking the reins of an Ellington favorite and driving it down the road less traveled. Backed by a surprisingly powerful New York-based acoustic trio, her sultry, controlled delivery and superb phrasing never sound contrived or forced.her "Caravan" delivers the goods across the frontiers of what is increasingly becoming a wilderness of uncharted musical territory." Vittorio Lo Conte, All about Jazz - Italia: "The answear to C.I.M.P and Bob Rusch, to Blue Note and Norah Jones is called Sophie Dunér. Here comes to C.I.M.P a special personality with her own musical vision beyound the typical genre........Sophie Dunér is a very original singer and a strong composer that writes lyrics that are everything but trivial ......." Michael Coyle, Cadence Magazine: ".....her sensibility and smarts are what make her songs—and they contribute crucially to making this record .Duner behaves according to the familiar credos of Modern Art...." David Kane, Cadence Magazine: "Textually, her occasionally cryptic lyrics explore the vagaries of male-female relationships with a wryness, authenticity, and humor that springs from real life experience—no starry eyed romanticism here. Rain in Spain is good music, fine singing, and interesting writing ably performed by four excellent musicians. Let’s hear more from Sophie and company." Peter Bickel, Nordische Musik: "As unusual the label and its recording technique is, as unusual is the Swedish singer Sophie Dunér, she is much more than just a ( jazz ) singer. With her incredible width, the possibilities of her voice and loads of imagination, she creates her own song universe between jazz, chanson, folk and fast poetry slam songs and could create an addiction. And with her love for Duke Ellington, that surely would sharpen his ears if he had heard her version of ”Caravan”, ”Lush Life” etc" Derek Taylor - Dusted Magazine 2006: "Sophie Dunér comes up with something personal and persuasive to say. I hear some of Joan Armatrading in her warm, folksy way of phrasing a lyric and lacing it with falsetto trills. There’s a little Anita O’Day in there too, with a sassy insouciance sharpening some of her turns of verse.Dunér’s songsmithing is suitably idiosyncratic with imagery that leaves much to the imagination. “Jack the Ripper” finds her dealing in Yma Sumac-evocative octave leaps. The follow-up “Lonely Woman” copped from the Horace Silver songbook not Coleman, reminds me of the mellower side of Patty Waters mixed with Nina Simone." CIMP, Bob Rusch - CD RELEASE - Redwood,NY 2005: " Sophie Dunér is both a personal and original singer and a composer of substance.She is a mature, seasoned and original voice. In addition, she has written over half of the tunes for this stunning release, originals as notable as the standards she chose to accompany them. This is a memorable vocalist, composer/lyricist, and presentation". Ingvar Loco Nordin, SONOLOCO RECORD REVIEWS: "When it comes to Sophie’s achievements they are marvelous. Her texts are fascinating, head-on, humorous, venomous, intelligent, funny and with that dark, serious strike that raises them out of the present,to a common ground without genres or brands, where the songs live their own life and stand their ground. Her melodies are almost all of the time plain hit material, and her singing, not least, is wonderful, brilliant, sexy and melancholy – and her phrasing is out of this world!".
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