Sofia Dragt of the Netherlands has just released her latest single, Temporary Gold, and we’ve been fortunate enough to be asked to write a review.
Inspired by a trip to Iceland, Temporary Gold is a calm and gentle ode to nature. There are lots of interesting sound effects throughout the track including the sound of passing cars for swell in the music as well as (we loved this one!) a boot in the mud with delay for percussion.
How cool and imaginative is that? It reminded us of S Express using an aerosol can as a percussion instrument! Once you know you can’t un-hear it.
Sofia’s voice has a confident calmness to it. Her head voice is spectacular and the control on the high notes reminds us of the great Imogen Heap when she’s singing high notes; airy enough to be vulnerable but controlled enough to maintain pitch. There’s some doubled vocals and some really subtle harmonies in this song too. The production on the vocals is particularly good.
There’s some lovely development in Temporary Gold and whilst its a song without a great deal of power; minimal percussion for example, it is a song which maintains the listeners interest. Temporary Gold is a wonderful soundscape. A wall of beautiful noise to be best used in a movie montage or similar (we note that Dragt has achieved considerable success writing for film and documentary). It reminded us of the song Wise Up by Aimee Mann that was used in the movie Magnolia.
The song is well mixed and well produced. For our own personal taste we’d suggest a shelf boost in the top 3 octaves for a little more air and brightness in the track, with a dip around 5kHz to avoid any excess sibilance in the vocal track (the “sh” sound). The track has some dominating frequencies around 400 and 1000Hz which we’d suggest slightly dipping. Also, we’d suggest trying a boost around 150Hz or finding a way of adding an extra instrument in this frequency range. The song is just lslightly under-represented in that frequency area and this would add a little warmth in that area.
Temporary Gold is a beautiful, well written and well performed evocative song. Sofia Dragt has clearly taken the time to immerse herself in the subject matter and has emerged with a glorious piece of authentic folk/pop. We look forward to hearing more of that gorgeous voice!