Trackfeature Sofia Härdig „In Silence“

Sofia Härdig im Review zu „In Silence“; Fotocredit: Jessica Nettelblad

Sofia Härdig – „In Silence“: Eine fesselnde Meditation über die Kraft der Stille

Die schwedische Künstlerin Sofia Härdig meldet sich mit „In Silence“ zurück – einer intensiven, atmosphärisch dichten Single, die am 28. Februar 2025 erschienen ist. Als letzter Vorgeschmack auf ihr kommendes Album „Lighthouse of Glass“ beschäftigt sich der Song mit der Stille. Aber nicht als Leere, sondern als Raum der Transformation. Die Musikerin beweist einmal mehr ihr Gespür für einen rohen, poetischen Ausdruck und erschafft ein klangliches Erlebnis, das durchaus unter die Haut gehen kann. „In Silence“ beginnt dabei mit sanften Akustikgitarren, die sich allmählich in ihrer Intensität steigern. Der Song entstand dabei bereits vor einiger Zeit, wurde aber von Härdig jetzt erst neu entdeckt und weiterentwickelt. Eine zufällige Begegnung nach einem ihrer Konzerte führte zur Zusammenarbeit mit Sara Edin, deren eindringliche Violine dem Stück eine neue Dimension verleiht. Die instrumentale Schichtung und Härdigs markante, fast beschwörende Stimme erzeugen eine Sogwirkung, die an Patti Smith erinnert – rau, ungeschliffen und voller Ausdruckskraft.

Die Bedeutung der Stille ist ein ganz elementarer Bestandteil ihrer Message. Sie beschreibt dabei ihre Obsession mit der Stille als „den Wendepunkt der Realität, an dem alles möglich ist“. Diese Idee zieht sich durch den gesamten Song. Dabei schaffen genau diese Momente der Ruhe Spannung, bevor sich die Musik in kraftvolle, emotionale Ausbrüche entlädt. Wer jetzt nämlich denkt, dass wir es hier mit einem durchweg ruhigen Song zu tun haben, irrt sich gewaltig. Er wirkt aber dennoch zerbrechlich und so, als könnte das Konstrukt in sich zusammenbrechen. Genretechnisch bewegt sich Sofia Härdig zwischen Alternative-Rock aber auch einem gewissen Touch von Gothic. Über diese Explosion an Genres müssen wir mit der Musikerin sprechen. Deswegen folgen jetzt einige Fragen zu ihr und der Konzeption dieses Songs:

Sofia Härdig: „Thank you for asking. The thing was that I wrote an extreme amount of songs; about one a day for 1 1/2 -2 years. So, when Bebe Risenfors (collaborator with Tom Waits and Elvis Costello) asked me if I had some material to send to him, I started digging through my library. Though, there’s so many songs, and still, I haven’t looked through even a fraction of them. Basically, I opened up the project at random, started working on them and sent them one by one to Bebe. Then, I came to think of In Silence, but I couldn’t find it; it had completely disappeared in my computer mess. It was lost. Then I realised that it was on my old computer, since it was one of the first songs I wrote for this project. Luckily, I could rescue the song from my old, outdated computer and transfer the files from old versions of my different DAW:s. I dug through my notebook sketches. I started reworking the backing vocals and building it up with new instrumentations to get the sound I was after. I started inviting musicians to come and hang out in my kitchen and on my tin roof, in the middle of the old parts of Stockholm. Bebe played bass and added more guitar in addition to mine. Viktor and Sara added trombone and violin. I replaced my programmed drums with live drums. Then the vital part, for me, of the production process started. When I had all the colours and it was time to lock the door and paint. Work on the whole album. I spent a month at Visby International Center For Composers during the winter and during the summer i worked in the solitude of my home studio;    picking what I liked from the instruments recorded; arranging, cutting, looping and layering. The answer to why I revisited it: pure curiosity to see what I could make of it. Plus, the musicians involved loved it.“

Sofia Härdig: „I think the most interesting is said in the silence between words; a conversation or a movement that suddenly stops; in the gap, in the break, the peculiar happens. You fall in love, apart, or in place, catch a glimpse of someone else’s or your own soul.

“Together here were words sleep
In a corner of time.”“

Sofia Härdig: „One thing that I love about working with Sara is that she always asks me to send her the lyrics before recording. She dives into the lyrics and that transforms into her playing. She adds, just as  you say, depth to the lyrics; she sings through her strings.  She came over to my studio and I listened, hung out on the roof and I cooked for her. It’s interesting, neither her or I are small talkers; we cut straight to the point, but still, our conversations never end. She is half Finnish and great at silence, which I highly appreciate. In the studio, we tried out different things. I listened through it, made arrangements, kept what I liked. she came back some days later and we added layers that I worked further on.“

Sofia Härdig: „If you listen carefully, there is a whole story told through the album. There are different colours and different perspectives in each song; some are mirroring one another and some are each other’s shadows. Where you place In Silence in that narrative, I leave, in silence, up to the listener.“

Sofia Härdig: „I think the answer lies in the question. Those three artists are very different to one another, so it would be hard to be a copy of something so diverse. I listen to a lot of music and am inspired by things far  from what I do. I think, though, I stem from the same root as some of the artists you mention. I grew up listening to broken, old, dirty blues. Old players with missing strings, fingers or a broken leg. But they played like demons. I think that it’s something to that. I never listen to an artist, or a group of artists, trying to do something similar; or shape my sound to sound like some else’s. I do what I hear in my head and I am simply too stubborn, strong-willed and weird…“

Sofia Härdig: „Yes, there are always challenges, but as I said, I am too stubborn and too independent to let someone tell me what to do. The fact that I’ve learned all the steps of the recording process, playing a bunch of instruments and producing myself gives me control down to every cut, reverb and syllable. I kind of like that. The studio is my instrument.“

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