Sophie Du Ry
Words by Rachael Pimblett
Is genre obsolete in 2025? With the rise of art-folk, post-punk-indie-garage-jazz, surf-nu-disco-rock (the list is quite literally endless), we might think the chord that connects the style of sounds and their meaning has been cut. Sure, it’s easy enough to get your head around. But what if the voice is the knife that cuts the connection?
Sophie Du Ry began as a backing singer for on-the-rise group The Orchestra (For Now), whose free-wheeling maximalism rejects this very confinement of a label. Not least, their fleeting name suggests things in constant shift. On her first solo project, then, we might expect Sophie to flip lavishly between genres and ideas. What we might not expect is how her voice is tied up in that conversation – how the voice can be at odds with the music, as well as part of the music itself.
In title track ‘Lost Some’, Sophie Du Ry runs up and down drone noises that bloom outwards and shrink inwards, like a balloon jittering from exhale to inhale. For a first project, Sophie isn’t afraid to use silence, pause or gathered friction to expand and explore the limits of the voice. A slick drum-beat folds in two-thirds of the way through, painting the song as a question of editorial agency. How long might tease us, before the sound fills out? How long are we willing to listen to a voice lead the way, prickle the pastures? It isn’t clear if her vocables are lamentation, longing, lust. Caroline Polacheck is a clear influence, but her timbre is sweeter. It’s refreshing.
In ‘Ughh’, Sophie’s voice soars over mumbled words repeated in the background, which seamlessly blends into the final offering, ‘Pick Me’. The harpsichord-like melody is at once spritely and moody, providing an experimental and impressively mature foundation to build upon. It’s quietly reminiscent of A. G. Cook and proves producer Daniel Scott-Warren has a great ear. The choruses are expansive and thrumming, jolting from the piano as a distorted interloper, and adding some impressive high notes. Though sometimes the wandering lethargy of the vocal melody means the instrumental draws attention away from the lyrics, Sophie’s rejection of consistency or structure isn’t confused. It’s purposefully and entirely unpredictable. Think Saya Gray, on the second day of a come-down.
What does this mean, then? Sophie claims that she uses her voice to “explore, challenge, and reshape the relationship between the female voice and modern ideas of femininity”. ‘Pick Me’ is about a toxic pull between a relationship explored in the toxic pull between voice and sound. Admissions of wrongness are sprinkled amidst anecdotal complaints. Sophie conjures many complicated relationships in this track: between femininity and modernity, between fear of loneliness and holding on, between subject and object. It’s an impressively complex and expertly produced track, and the highlight of the EP.
‘Lost Some’ is short, but thankfully, there’s more to listen to. Beyond working closely with Daniel, Sophie Du Ry has collaborated with electronic musicians Lily Montague and Mutebody, contributing backing vocals and piano on Lily Montague’s Heaven-Scent EP and a poppy vocal edit on Mutebody’s latest remix album. Daniel is also a member of the band Van Zon hailing from Brighton’s music scene, an amalgamated offering of folk, drone music and post rock. Sophie’s debut may be brief, but it lingers, proving that unpredictability can be its own kind of cohesion – one that keeps us eagerly listening for what comes next.