Nov 10

Nov 10 SØLV

jacket ALESSANDRA RICH tights FALKE heels ILIAS LITTLE SHOE BOX

Sølv approaches music through instinct, translating visual images, memories, and sensations into sound. Guided by synesthesia and a deep sensitivity to sonic detail, her work often finds its emotional weight in imperfections, from a cracked voice to a detuned synthesiser. Growing up in a quiet village on the south coast of England, she found in music a private world of her own, one that gradually took shape as she learned to produce.

In this conversation, Sølv reflects on the memories that first drew her to sound, the relationship between music and image, and the four-year process behind her most personal project to date. Conceived as a sonic diary, the work moves away from conventional song structures and traditional vocals, offering an intimate account of a personal journey through sound.

How would you describe the process through which you connect an image to a sound? Is it a unidirectional movement from one pole to the other, or does the path shift each time? Or rather, is it more like a spark, something that suddenly reveals a connection that has always already existed within you?

Whenever I work to a visual, I’m always thinking about how it makes me feel as a starting point. Then from there it’s usually a pretty instinctive process of translating feeling to sound. I can just hear how it sounds in my head - I think synesthesia obviously helps with this...

For the videos where I match movement to sound, it’s a very precise and detailed way of working; this is always just a pretty long process centred around manually matching MIDI notes frame by frame to the visual movement, which I (psychotically) really enjoy and find so satisfying to do haha.

In what ways has your background shaped your relationship with sound? Do you perceive it as something learned, inherited, or gradually constructed over time?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to make music, but in another way I’ve always felt very emotionally connected to sound. I remember tiny details giving me such comfort as a child, like the sound of rain on the window and the background hum of the television from another room while I was falling asleep.

My parents aren’t musicians, but my mum was always playing me stuff like early Roxy Music and Kraftwerk, which I’m sure planted a seed. I grew up as an only child in a small sleepy village on the south coast of England; there wasn’t much to do, and I always dreamed of living in a big city with more excitement. Listening to music and singing alone in my room was always my way of escaping, but when I started teaching myself how to produce, I found I was able to create little worlds and get completely lost in them.

Over time I’ve gradually refined the way I work and the kind of sounds I want to use to create these worlds. I think this is something that can’t really be taught; it’s just a matter of developing and learning who you are and what you like.

jacket ASHLEY WILLIAMS heels ILIAS LITTLE SHOE BOX socks FALKE

Does your relationship with sound change when you experience it alone compared to when you share it with others? If so, how does its meaning or intensity transform across these different contexts?

I actually think about this a lot... Songs somehow sound different when you listen to them with others, at least they do for me.

I tend to hear things in a whole new way; I guess it’s just a change of perspective that comes from listening through someone else’s ears, imagining the way they perceive the sound.

leather jacket SOO SIM tights STYLIST’S OWN heels GUCCI

leather jacket SOO SIM tights STYLIST’S OWN

How do you understand the threshold between sound as something physical and sound as something emotional or psychological? At what point does it stop being heard and start being felt?

I think this really differs from person to person, but for me, sound feeling ‘alive’ and ‘breathing’ trigger an emotional response; imperfection in music is super beautiful to me.

Whether it’s literally the rawness in someone’s voice cracking, a sound dropping out for a millisecond, or a detuned synth. Asymmetry or just generally a human element makes me ‘feel’ the music in a different way.

jacket JOSEPH RICHMAN shorts STYLIST’S OWN heels ILIAS LITTLE SHOE BOX

If you were to describe yourself through a sound, what would it be?

A field recording of birdsong stretched and pitched down 17 semitones.

jacket JOSEPH RICHMAN shorts STYLIST’S OWN

Among everything you’ve created so far, which project stands out as the most significant to you? Was it something deeply personal, or a collaboration or commission that pushed you in a new direction?

My upcoming project is definitely the most unapologetically me I’ve ever been. It’s a pretty different direction for me in terms of it being completely void of conventional song structure and sitting in a more ambient/experimental world, not using vocals in a traditional sense.

It feels like a little sonic diary that I’ve been adding to over the past 4 years, so it really captures a journey of self without using lyrics to portray narrative or feeling. It feels super personal and is pretty much me in sound form, actually.

dress SAM MACER heels ILIAS LITTLE SHOE BOX

How would you articulate the essence of your sound? Could you capture it in just three words?

Visceral, oblique, yearning.

If you could extend your work beyond its current boundaries, who would you choose to collaborate with? Across music, fashion, and art, where do you imagine your language expanding next?

I’m finding my work naturally progressing into these different mediums. I love the way I get to use my brain in a different way for each different project, which in turn teaches me something new and pushes me into new ways of working that I would probably never have discovered otherwise.

I definitely want to get into scoring for runway shows, scoring a film, and making music for exhibition spaces.