Eleven traditionals about heavy hearts, green laurels and soft dew. Recorded and mixed by Nicholas O'Brien at Upcycled Sounds, Paris
Mastered by Barry Teehan at Safire Studio, Amsterdam

Laurels

Three little boys

Green grow the laurels

Horo Johnny

As I roved out

Here Now

Last track of my album Laurels (2014). It's a Robert Burns song that I knew from Scottish singer Karine Polwart. I accompany myself on the mbira, which I play while holding it onto a piano in which the microphones were hung (for more such good ideas, get yourself recorded at Upcycled Sounds). You can hear or even buy the whole album on Bandcamp: http://sophieterschure.bandcamp.com

Recorded and mixed by Nicholas O'Brien at Upcycled Sounds, Paris
Mastered by Barry Teehan at Safire Studio, Amsterdam
Photograph by Jack Durtnall at Palais de Tokyo, Paris :)

http://upcycledsounds.eu

The lea rig (final song of my new album Laurels!)

For everyone who has to celebrate Christmas after losing someone.

Fairy Lights

When I just had become a mother, I stayed with my parents for a few days so they could help me with the baby at night. It was May or June then, as it is now, and I was admiring all the wild flowers around my parents' house. I was really worried about climate change and the world that I had brought my baby into - would he know all the flowers that grew around me when I grew up? Would they still be there when he was my age? I felt helpless and that's when I wrote this song. I've realized since that it makes me feel more hopeful if I come into action. But back then, I felt like my voice didn't matter. And I'm still afraid. But hopefully if we all come into action, we can prevent the worst.

Thistle

Volgspot is een programma van de KRO-NCRV met presentator Hijlco Span. Op woensdag 28 juni sprak hij met songwriter Sophie Janna over haar nieuwe single Thistle.

Thistle in Volgspot KRO-NCRV woensdag 28 juni

A new song. Well, I wrote it back in October, and I've played it live sometimes, but this is the first full recording of it. 

Wiser (home recording)

(c) Sophie Janna 2018
Demo recorded by Pieter van Vliet who also added some synth :) 
Lyrics with some love from Kay, Sanne and Eva at KONIJN festival, August 2018

Put up your tent beneath the glowing of the starlight
Reminds me of a year ago
We had to make our camp out in the total darkness
Right in the middle we didn't know

Now I wonder where you are while you're not sleeping in my bed
Put your arms round someone else, tell me where you lay your head

The trees are arrows pointing up towards the night sky
And I wish that you were here
To tell me names of planets, stars & constellations
And make my worries disappear

Now I wonder where you are while you're not sleeping in my bed
Put your arms round someone else, tell me where you lay your head
And I wish you could have tried a little harder to be mine
I gave you all I had and my heart was on the line
Now I wonder where you are while you're not sleeping in my bed
Put your arms round someone else, tell me where you lay your head

I fall asleep surrounded by the conversations
Of other lovers holding tight
With no one else you'd sleep so well but me beside you
And I'm lost without your hand in mine 

Now I wonder where you are while you're not sleeping in my bed
Put your arms round someone else, tell me where you lay your head
Now I wonder where you are while you're not sleeping in my bed
Put your arms round someone else, tell me where you lay your head

Beneath The Starlight

This traditional song is sometimes called 'I once loved a lass' but there's many a song with that name, so I thought it better to stick to the first line. I heard it first from Sandy Denny and thought it rude to play it as well (I love her version) but then someone said to me, Sandy Denny is dead. Yes, I'm in a cynical mood.

Green Grow The Laurels (home recording)

When I started singing folk I stayed away from Dubliners repertoire for a long time, but I heard this song again recently after a six years gap (it was featured in the Gardensessions podcast that I was addicted to at the time) and enjoyed the lyrics so much that I learned them myself. Hopefully there will be some version with a fiddle or a clarinet or something in the near future :)

Eileen Og (home recording)

vocals, lyrics & music by Sophie Janna 
backing vocals, synth & sound design by Hannah Jacobs
arranged, recorded, produced & mixed by Upcycled Sounds
mastered by Felix Davis at Metropolis London

Wide World

Vocals Sophie Janna
Violin Joseph O'Keefe 
Guitar and drums Nicholas O'Brien
Lyrics & music Sophie Janna

Nightfall

Starlight

Sophie Janna toured the world with her duo The Lasses before she dared to share her own songs on the stage. Vulnerable, honest and captivating, Sophie Janna’s songs deal with being a soft human in a concrete world.

Sophie Janna

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