Sophie Moleta is a New Zealand-Australian singer, songwriter, composer and teacher with an intimate singing style. She provides folk pop with piano-backed vocals and also covers other genres from dance and house music, electronic ambient to laid back jazz.
Moleta was born in
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...
, New Zealand, but had moved to
Perth
Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
, Western Australia early 1970s.
Her father, Vincent Bartolo Moleta (born 1939), was a writer, publisher and historian, who retired in 2000 and her mother,
classical accompanist was Christine Oakley (1939–1989).
From the age of four she received classical music lessons from her mother.
Moleta's non-classical music career started with a local Perth punk band, the Brautigans as backup vocalist and drummer.
Two of Moleta's tracks, "Can You" and "111 Taranaki St", are included on the Various Artists' compilation album, ''Runner: A Compilation of New Zealand Music'' (1994).
Joshua Glazer of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
described her "haunting piano and whispered vocals".
Her early album, ''Trust'', was self published.
She relocated to France in 1999.
For her next album, ''Dive'' (2000), the artist worked with French producer
Hector Zazou
Hector Zazou (11 July 1948 – 8 September 2008) was a prolific French composer and record producer who worked with, produced, and collaborated with an international array of recording artists. He worked on his own and other artists' albums, inclu ...
, who recorded it at Peter Gabriel's
Real World Studios
Real World Studios is a residential recording studio complex founded by Peter Gabriel and situated in the old Box Mill building in the village of Box, Wiltshire, England, near to the city of Bath. It is closely associated with the Real World R ...
.
Correspondent for ''
De Morgen
''De Morgen'' (; ''The Morning'') is a Flemish newspaper with a circulation of 53,860. The paper is published in Antwerp, Belgium.
History and profile
''De Morgen'' originates from a merger in 1978 of two socialist newspapers ' (meaning "Onwar ...
'' compared her to
Tori Amos
Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full ...
, "Moleta's music sounds more minimalistic and the expressive capacity of her voice is clearly smaller" and found that her singing "is rarely accompanied by more than one instrument and in 'Geneva' and 'Fresh Rain' vocally goes so over the top that it makes your teeth grind."
Whereas with "'10 x 2', 'Chapelle' or the thin title track, this lady effortlessly gets you captivated."
Moleta was residing in
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
, England and
Jersey
Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...
by 2000.
She collaborated with trance group, Human Movement to issue a single, "Love Has Come Again" (2000).
In 2003 she returned to Wellington, New Zealand and by 2007 was back in Perth, Australia.
Discography
Albums except as noted
*''Stoop Only to Love'' (1996)
*''Trust'' (1998)
*''Dive'' (2000)
*''The Cowshed Session'' (2000)
*''Live in Lille (France)'' (October 2000) Sofa
*"Love Has Come Again" (2000) single
*''Les Jolies Choses'' (2001) (two tracks - film soundtrack & soundtrack album)
*''Temple'' (2001)
*''Grow in Love'' (2001)
*''Accept'' (2002)
*''My Style of Sensual'' (2003) Sofa
*''What Happened in Fremantle?'' (2004) (with David Härenstam)
*''Untie Me'' (2005) (with Holmes Ives)
*''Live at LaSalle (Singapore)'' (2005)
*"Te-Atawhai" (3 track single) (2006) and separate video/DVD of the title track
*"Awaken" (2006) original track from ''Untie Me'' in nine remix versions
*''Every Girl I Know Deserves a Packet of Stars'' (2007) (14 tracks + video)
* SatyaKadambiiMela-"Truth is"( 2012)
The birth of Love ep released on band camp October 2015
References
External links
Sophie Moleta FacebookSophie Moleta website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moleta, Sophie
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
New Zealand emigrants to Australia
Moleta, Sophie