LOVE SONGS REVIEWS
Fluid Radio – Nathan Thomas
“There’s a lot of silence on “Love Songs”. Rather than batter you with noise hammers right from the get-go, Soddell chooses very gradual fade-ins, or sudden bursts seemingly coming from nowhere. Were I the type to hear every sound as a metaphor, I suppose I’d say that this mirrors the ways in which pressure can slowly build up in a relationship between two people, or how deeply repressed feelings can suddenly explode given the right trigger. Or perhaps these forms are intended to represent the “insidiousness” of the abuse that Soddell wishes to meditate on. Either way, the results are striking and unexpected: the silence increases the perceived aggression or pathos of the noise, while the noise attenuates the blankness of the silence, filling it with its own void.”
A Closer Listen – Richard Allen (includes an interview with Thembi)
“Soddell’s first release was 2004’s Intimacy ~ a title which now seems ironic as well. The power of her music is its dynamic range. Fond of both silence and dissonance, she pushes each to its limits. In some tracks, she builds gradually to levels of intense viscosity; in others, she allows discord to interrupt. Her music seems to seethe even when it is silent, like a dormant volcano. There are no words in these pieces, but there are voices, mangled beyond recognition like unheard pleas.”
Dark Entries – Paul Van de gehuchte (in Dutch)
“Dit moet zowat de meest zwartgallige en woeste expressie zijn van een cyclus liefdesliedjes die tot op heden is gemaakt.”
Cyclic Defrost
“‘Love Songs’, her latest work published on the Australian imprint Room40, is provoking above everything else. WIth just a handful of remarks I tried to convey a complex spectrum of reactions into words. Same as her use of musique concrète techniques, erasing sound distinctiveness until it’s own identity transforms and turns unrecognizable, an unidentifiable response arises from the subconscious while listening to it. You might not always be prepared for it.”
Badd Press Blog
Sodapop Webzine – Massimo Onza (in Italian)
INTERVIEWS
Cyclic Selects
“To celebrate the release of Love Songs we asked Thembi about some of the music that moves [them]”.
Chain DLK
“Here it is, a very interesting interview with Australian sound artist and electroacoustic producer Thembi Soddell, following the listening of [their] recent album “Love Songs” … We tried to dig even deeper into this awesome release guided by its talented author.”
The Music – Tim Byrne
Who Am I Anyway? The Art of Discovering the Self at MOFO
“Is art for the artist or their audience? Tim Byrne meets two sonic pioneers — sound artist Thembi Soddell and Scot Cotterell of Evil Goat — who are thrashing their own path through the status quo of the listener.”
ABC Classic – New Waves with Stephen Adams
Mofo 2018: From the depths of the museum to the chapel of bones
“Resonating the spaces of Mona with percussionist David Jones, sound artist Thembi Soddell, improvising saxophonists Rosalind Hall and Jim Denley, and more.”
15 Questions
“Fifteen Questions is the world’s first music magazine about music itself. By talking to some of the leading artists of our time about their perspectives, processes and approaches, we aim at building an extensive archive documenting one of music’s most turbulent and exciting eras.”
ARTICLES
Tiny Mix Tapes
“Love Songs represents the most recent strange fruits of her labors, and it’ll be available April 12 from the Room40 in all of it’s glorious unrelenting darkness. According to the press release, this Musique concrète-oriented “work of extreme dynamics and intensities” is “easily the clearest articulation of her methodologies,” amounting to nothing less than “one of the most fierce sonic expressions to be delivered from an Australian artist in recent years.””
The Quietus
“The title Love Songs is a little dark humour on my behalf,” Soddell explains. “As the compositional process evolved the work became a meditation on the lived experience of insidious forms of abuse within supposedly loving relationships, in connection to certain forms of mental illness. These experiences are ones of extremes and emotional intensities; the tensions between horror, beauty, rage, desire, confusion, love and perceptual annihilation.””
Self-Titled Magazine
“With a wildly experimental sound that stops and starts without warning—gathering momentum like a looming electrical storm or poorly contained pressure cooker—it’s both disorienting and deeply disturbing. The composer is especially skilled at harnessing the raw power of silence, to the point where you’re unsure if this thing’s even on. It most certainly is. In fact, it’s only a matter of time before distant frequencies come into focus once again, gnashing their teeth and obliterating everything in their path.”
BIBLOGRAPHY OF PRESS
2022. “The Sensuality of Low Frequency Sound,” Cat Hope, in The Body in Sound, Music and Performance: Studies in Audio and Sonic Arts, eds. Keeffe, L. & Nogueira, I., Taylor & Francis Group: England.
2018. “Love Songs Review.” Nathan Thomas, Fluid Radio. 2018. “Love Songs Review and Interview.” Richard Allen, A Closer Listen.
2018. “Love Songs Review.” Bob Baker Fish, Cyclic Defrost.
2018. “Love Songs Review (in Dutch).” Paul Van de Gehuchte, Dark Entries.
2018. “Love Songs Review (in Italian).” Massimo Onza, Soda Pop.
2018. “Cyclic Selects: Thembi Soddell.” Bob Baker Fish & Thembi Soddell. Cyclic Defrost.
2018. “Thembi Soddell: Interview.” Vito Camarretta. Chain D.L.K.
2018. “Who Am I Anyway? The Art of Discovering the Self at MOFO.” Tim Byrne, The Music.
2018: “MOFO 2018: From the depths of the museum to the chapel of bones.”, ABC Classic – New Waves with Stephen Adams (podcast).
2018: “15 Questions: Thembi Soddell.” 15 Questions.
2018: “Love Songs: new album/book video and premiere details.” Dan Smart, Tiny Mix Tapes.
2018. “WATCH: Thembi Soddell Video on ROOM40,” Christian Eede, The Quietus.
2018. “Stream Thembi Soddell’s Love Songs Album and Read [their] Track-by-Track Commentary.” Self-Titled Magazine.
2014. “The Audible & the Invisible: Decibel New Music Ensemble, After Julia.” Zsuzsanna Soboslay, Real Time Arts, Issue 124.
2014. “Listening to music in 2014 #2: Bodies – Nobody.” Jim Denley, Resonate Magazine, Australian Music Centre, 12 December 2014.
2014. “Review: After Julia (Decibel).” Andrew Batt-Rawden, Limelight: Music, Arts & Culture, 11 November 2014.
2012. Women of Note: The rise of Australian Women Composers, Rosalind Appleby. Fremantle Press: Perth.
2012. “Anthea Caddy and Thembi Soddell: Host.” Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, 13 September 2012.
2012. “Sound Capsule #5.” Real Time Arts, 18 September 2012.
2012.”The Sound Already Present.” Sally Ann McIntyre, Real Time Arts, Issue 111, Oct-Nov 2012. “Iland: Anthea Caddy & Thembi Soddell – Review.” Lawrence English, The Wire, Issue 340, June 2012.
2011. “Part 1: Sydney Scenes & Sounds.” Gail Priest, Real Time Arts, Issue 103.
2009. “Soirée Hiatus #3: Julie Rousse + Christine Shenaoui / Anthea Caddy + Thembi Soddell.” Performance review (in French), Fabrice Allard, Ether Real.
2009. “The Wonderment of the Bleak.” Cat Hope. Art Monthly, Issue 225.
2009. “The Artefact Installation – Hannan, Soddell & Tarab.” Sam Gillies, Resonate Magazine, Australian Music Centre, 24 September 2009.
2008. “Networks, Playfulness and Collectivity: Improv in Australia 1972-2007.” Jim Denley, in Experimental Music: Audio Explorations in Australia, book edited by Gail Priest. University of New South Wales Press: Sydney.