UMBRAL EPk OLD | Sofia Rei

SOFIA REI

NEW ALBUM!

BIO

Classically trained and an ardent inquisitor of the intricacies of South American folk music, Rei has released five albums of John Zorn’s music on Tzadik Records and four independent recordings under her own name. Rei was among the featured artists at globalFEST 2021, which resulted in an electrifying NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert and subsequent photo running in Jon Pareles’ globalFEST review in The New York Times (January 15, 2021; LINK). Her role as Professor at NYU Tisch Clive Davis Institute – where she designed the “New Perspectives in Latin Music” course – places her at the forefront of uncovering the broad diversity of traditional Latin American music styles integrated with new technologies and cutting-edge trends.

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Press

Release

Technical Rider

VIDEO

Sofia Rei - globalFest meets NPR Tiny Desk

Sofia Rei "Un Mismo Cielo"

Sofia Rei "La Otra"

"Un Mismo Cielo"

Sofia Rei "Negro Sobre Blanco"

Sofia Rei "La Quinta Pata"

UMBRAL PERSONNEL

Produced by JC Maillard

Mixed by Fabrice Dupont

Sofía Rei: Lead Vocals, Back up vocals, Vocal loops, Charango

JC Maillard: Electric guitar, Acoustic guitar, Ukelele, Electric bass, Charango, Back Up Vocals

Jorge Glem: Cuatro (La Caída and Negro Sobre Blanco)

Jorge Roeder: Upright bass (Helvetica 12 and La Quinta Pata)

Leo Genovese: Synths and piano (Helvetica 12 and Un Mismo Cielo)

Franco Pinna: Drums and percussion (Negro Sobre Blanco)

Tupac Mantilla: Drums, percussion and body percussion (La Quinta Pata)

Martin Bejarano: Colombian gaita (Un Mismo Cielo and Escarabajo Digital)

ABOUT "UMBRAL"

GRAMMY Award-nominated Latinx artist Sofia Rei is an ever-traveler perpetually seeking new expressions for her innate gift as a vocalist and songwriter. Produced by JC Maillard (Angelique Kidjo, Richard Bona), Rei’s latest recording, UMBRAL (Cascabelera Records; Release Date: June 4, 2021), takes her deep into the mountains of the Elqui Valley in Chile to capture intimate portrayals of a woman fighting for her place in the world. Rei set off on a solo trek across the rugged Eastern Chilean terrain with two backpacks of recording gear, and a mind overflowing with the complexities of modern life. UMBRAL results in a masterpiece steeped in folkloric tradition and digital futurism.

Rei set off on her travels to the Elqui Province with a charango in hand ready for an uninhibited excursion to record unorthodox vocal sketches in the form of loops based on a series “Cinco Poemas Cínicos” (“Five Cynical Poems”). Incisive and imaginative, Rei’s poetry responds to heartbreak, deception, and disappointment with unrestrained candor. Her self-sufficient compositions originate from a vocal layering structure allowing each work to stand on its own.

ABOUT THE PRODUCER

Jean-Christophe (JC) Maillard, is a French composer, guitarist, pianist, electronic musician, producer and arranger native of Pointe-à-Pître, Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. For the past 20 years, he has been touring, producing, arranging, acting as musical director and recording with all the great names in the world music and world jazz scene. He has collaborated with Grammy wining artists such as Lisa Fischer, Angelique Kidjo, Richard Bona, Toure Kunda, etc. JC is also known for mastering and being the first player of the SazBass, a new 8-steel string instrument of Turkish origin.

PRESS

"Sofia Rei, an Argentine singer now based in New York, conjured a wildly eclectic, near hallucinatory international mix from her living room with her band: Andean, Asian, jazz, funk, electronics. True to Globalfest’s boundary-scrambling mission, she sang about living under 'Un Mismo Cielo': 'The Same Sky.’”

- Jon Pareles, The New York Times

“Flutes flutter over ricocheting synth bass, a stop-and-start beat and strummed charango, as Rei’s overdubbed voice harmonizes with itself in fierce exclamations, lapping at the sky like a flame” - Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times

"It's a fascinating exploration of her own creative process, as well as a capsule history of musical traditions

from the southern-most tip of the Americas.”

- Felix Contreras, NPR “Alt.Latino”

“...award-winning Argentine vocalist and songwriter Sofia Rei provides a concert that blends South American folk traditions with experimental pop and electronic music. That mix of tradition and modernity extends to her surroundings, which features traditional iconography, robotic 'saints,' exuberant plants and looping pedals.”

- Bob Boilen, NPR “Tiny Desk Concert”

“Over booming drum beats and chirping flute embellishments, “La Otra” is an exciting tribute to Mistral with instrumentation based in Colombian dance music.”

– Margaret Farrell, Flood Magazine

“Umbral, an álbum in which Sofía Rei takes pleasure in sonic explorations, where she reinvents the sound of her own voice and recreates imaginary sonic landscapes where her musical past mixes with possible futures of a kind of music that seems not to recognize the meaning of the word “limit”

- María Zentner, Página 12