Australian pianist and composer Sophie Hutchings’ love affair with the piano began in a rather concealed manner. As a child she would secret herself away with only the family piano for company – quietly developing her ruminative, dreamy style which would later become her trademark. Although initially reserved about her music and the notion of live performance, it wasn’t until releasing her debut album Becalmed that Sophie was nudged into the public arena.
With two nominations for the Australian Music Prize and the National Live Music Awards’ top five live instrumentalists of the year, glowing praise from MOJO, The Guardian, Wonderland and the release of eight highly acclaimed albums including ‘”Echoes in the Valley’ reaching the impressive milestone of becoming the #1 classical album in the UK in 2021, Sophie Hutchings continues her incredible journey with her new album ‘A World Outside’ out October 2023.
This eighth studio album is a work of spacious, hypnotic beauty, a musical travelogue inspired by a road trip through Australia’s mighty Northern Territory, beginning in tropical Darwin and going deep into the arid Red Heart.
Rich with emotion and feeling, texture and contrast, as propulsive and powerful as it is elegant and intimate, ‘A World Outside’ is an impressionistic take on a wide brown land. Piano notes flow, pause and surge, variously blending with strings, synths, percussion and field recordings, and features from First Nations artists, revered Yolgnu songman Rrawun Maymuru and rising Larrakia diva, Lena Kellie.
“My new album ‘A World Outside’ is based around a very unique road trip I embarked on last year. Road trips have always played a pretty large role in my life. They have this amazing ability to transport us elsewhere. There’s a sense of freedom and adventure that are pretty hard to match I love the challenge of the unexpected, and this one was that …”
“It was a momentous one, hundreds of miles away from civilization, a land steeped in ancient indigenous and geological history, following a landscape bathed in magical red and orange hues … Just like the scenery on a road trip transports you, I think music does the same thing, it heightens that sense of emotion and taps into that deep sense of our own selves … I wanted to douse myself in this landscape’s wild and untamed openness interpreting that experience through music. It’s a way of making lasting memories and this album is my way of documenting that … I look forward to taking you there …” – Sophie Hutchings
An avid surfer and deep lover of the outdoors, she draws inspiration from the beauty of the natural world and the expansive landscape of her native Australia. She’s known for compositions that sway from the disarmingly spare and elegant to the romantic and epic – all expressing a distinct, exquisite fragility and intimacy.
Sought after as a composer and pianist, Sophie has been involved with a number of films (most recently Baby Teeth and True Spirit), toured internationally through Japan and Europe, and opened for artists such as Olafur Arnalds, Hauschka, Federico Albanese, Lambert.
“an intimate, contemplative quality; sometimes melancholic, often with an exhilarating beauty.” – The Guardian
“Calm in a maddening world” – CLASH
“As a composer and pianist, Sophie Hutchings excels beyond many of her contemporaries. Refined in her approach and expressive in her musical choices, the creative force has become a staple of Australian music, with critical praise coming thick and fast.” – WONDERLAND
“stirring, vigorous, grandly melodic” – MOJO
“Sophie Hutchings doesn’t just play the piano, she flows with the notes” – A Closer Listen