Recorded in live, continuous takes at Abbey Road, Berlin-based, Swiss singer, multi-instrumentalist and film composer Sophie Hunger has today released her seventh studio album, her first in two years, Halluzinationen.
The album, recorded in Studio Two by Abbey Road engineer Chris Bolster, and assisted by Paul Pritchard and Andy Maxwell, is produced by MPG UK Producer Of The Year, Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, Fontaines DC), and mastered by our own Christian Wright. Dan was also at the helm for 2018’s Molecules, which was Hunger’s first full album in English and what she describes as "minimal electronic folk".
A little over two years on, and her second collaboration with Carey, Hunger decided to move from Carey’s Speedy Wunderground studio in South London to our own Studio Two. Halluzinationen was created by using a continuous live recording technique, with the album captured in sequence just six times over the course of two days. It is an approach Hunger succinctly identifies as "full risk", but evokes the record's undeniable vulnerability and intimacy that would have not been possible any other way. Informed by an exploration of the relationship between loneliness and the imaginary, Hunger’s latest material finesses the electronic direction she’s been pursuing with Carey ever since a relocation to Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighbourhood.
Ahead of the session, we caught up with Sophie and the album's producer Dan Carey, who discussed the inspiration in recording the album in live, continuous takes, and why they decided to do this at Abbey Road in Studio Two. Watch the interview below.
Abbey Road talks to Sophie Hunger and Dan Carey
Sophie Hunger’s six solo albums to date have accrued over a quarter of a million sales, drawing her comparisons to contemporaries including Sharon Van Etten and PJ Harvey. Sophie made her debut at Glastonbury in 2010 as the first Swiss artist to ever play the festival, and 2016 saw Hunger also make her very successful first outing in film scoring, with her soundtrack for the Oscar & Golden Globe-nominated Ma Vie de Courgette earning her a Cesar nomination.
