Astrid Sonne is a Danish, London based composer and viola player. Throughout her
acclaimed discography, Astrid Sonne has been carefully crafting different moods
through electronic and acoustic instrumental endeavours.
On her most recent album “Great Doubt” (January 2024) this skill is refined, now with
the distinct addition of the composer’s own vocal in the fore. The tone of each track
is unmistakably Sonne’s, structured around contrasts through an impeccable sense
of timing. Lyrics on the album are sparse, merely highlighting different scenes or
emotional states of being, leaving the music to fill in the blanks. Yet they also form a
pattern of ambiguity, consolidated through the album title, searching for answers
through looking at how and what you are asking, questions for the world, questions
of love.
The viola, a trusted companion since Astrid Sonne’s youth, appears effortlessly
throughout the album, fully integrated into the sonic universe; through a pizzicato
driven arrangement in the poignant track “Almost” or along with booms and claps in
mutated cinematic stabs during “Give my all”, paraphrasing Mariah Carey’s 1997
ballad. Yet the string section also gives way to explorations of woodwinds,
counterbalancing the bowed movements with digital brass and airy flutes. Finally,
beats and detuned piano are fresh additions to the soundscape,
