Step into a world of serenity with Sophie Hutchings

Some albums are born to be vehicles of transportation, carrying you into another space, another time, or another world.

On ARIA award-winning pianist and composer Sophie Hutchings’ latest offering, the drive has two destinations.

Become The Sky is Hutchings’ ninth studio album. As revealed on Friday 17 July, the instrumental, eleven-track contemporary, neo-classical creation firstly teleports listeners to Sydney Harbour, to the home of the recording, inside ACO On The Pier in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct.

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“To be looking out over the Sydney Harbour and the glistening water as you’re playing, I felt very spoilt, but I felt like I could translate how I felt right there in the moment. Everything – the writing process from my studio, to the recording studio, to my listeners – it feels so organic and pure,” explains Hutchings.  

“I worked really hard on how I wanted Become The Sky to sound but the room had a very specific sound and I was conscious of that while I was recording. The room is so big but I really enjoy feeling so infinitely small in a big room. You just have yourself and a piano and gear and the synths sitting around you looking out at the Sydney Harbour – it has a special feeling to it – but the way we micced the room so close to the piano made it feel very insulated and cosy.”

Entering the acoustic chamber of Become The Sky feels like an intimate journey, one where you witness Hutchings tackle each piece in a single take. She’s focused, she’s organised, and she’s barefoot. She carries years of rehearsal and finessing songs with her as she sits down at the keys, and it all pours out. 

“Time was really limited with this, because it was meant to be an EP but turned into an album, so I was very focused creatively but the process was very organic. There were no edits, it was all straight takes. I want people to hear exactly what was going on in the studio in real time. It’s one of those albums that is very real and very raw in its approach but also very produced,” explains Hutchings.  

 

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Adopting a technique of felting the piano to create a muted, dolced, mellow sound, one that is very unique to the neo-classical make, Hutchings leaned into experimentation, yet stripped back her well-fed instrumentation on this peaceful project.  

“I do a lot of fuller, sonically layered albums and there is a lot of instrumentation and a lot more going on. For this album I went in purposely wanting to strip back areas of notation and fill that with atmospheric space and that was done through synth pads. I also brought in musician and friend, Benjamin Fletcher, to do a lot of atmos sounds through guitar pedals so we were blurring the world of synths and guitar pedals so you couldn’t distinguish what was what,” she explains.

“The piano is very piano forward, it’s very central to the album, but the spaces in between fill these landing echoes which to me characterises the sentimental values of place and memories and nostalgia.”

It’s those spaces in between that act as the second mode of movement. The open, expansive clearance carries listeners into nature. It’s a thread defined through song titles including ‘A Sense of Place’, ‘The Gathering Dusk’, ‘Secrets of the Sea’, ‘Eyes on the Sun’ and the overarching Become The Sky blanket, where elements of the natural world hold deep influence.

“The title, Become the Sky, connects with how I feel about nature because the sky is endless. It’s forever shifting so it’s very symbolic of contemplation, openness, and endless, and that can often symbolise escapism, venturing into unknown territory, discovery and so I love that openness. It comes from my own ventures into those spaces and the impact it has on my senses, my mind, my brain, and my body,” Hutchings comments.

“Music has an incredible way of almost accidental mindfulness. My goal with this whole album was to be able to stop for a moment in time and to almost view life in slow motion in a symbolic fashion. That’s the beauty of this music, it takes us away from wherever we are to have that moment for ourselves.”

Lulling you into a state of contentment and a place of reflection, Become The Sky is the ideal medicine for the cold winter weather. Soak in the sonic waves of Sydney Harbour and the perpetual sky with Sophie Hutchings.

Become The Sky by Sophie Hutchings is out now via Universal Music. Listen to it now here.

Word by Tammy Walters