Sofie Birch and Antonina Nowacka’s album Languoria To Be Jointly Released on the Unsound and Mondoj record labels. Listen Now to the Track Sudany. New Live Show at Unsound 2022.

Languoria is a collaboration between Denmark’s Sofie Birch and Poland’s Antonina Nowacka. While Birch describes herself as an ambient musician, Nowacka’’s primary instrument is her own voice; they share in common a facility for creating complex, layered work. Their album will be released jointly by the Unsound and Mondoj record labels on October 7th 2022, but you can already listen to the track Sudany and pre-order the vinyl edition via either the Unsound or Mondoj Bandcamp. 

Birch and Nowacka were first brought together by Unsound to perform at Ephemera Festival in Warsaw as part of a durational overnight performance. Entirely improvised, the music already felt coherent, with Nowacka’s voice weaving effortlessly through Birch’s ambient soundscapes and field recordings, indicating an immediate, deep connection, a meeting of kindred spirits. The artists were reunited at Unsound Kraków to perform a morning show at a 19th-century synagogue. Here, the music took clearer shape, and the audience glimpsed the birth of works that would eventually take the form of individual tracks on Languoria.

This past winter, the two artists met in Copenhagen to record the album, completing 11 compositions that feel sacred, almost devotional in character. Fusing the melodicism and gentleness of Birch’s sound practice and the abstract, spiritual vocalisations of Nowacka, the album alludes to the wonders of the natural world while also turning its gaze inwards. “When working together, every small decision was very important, and that’s why such simple compositions can hold so much complexity and depth,” Sofie Birch says of their time in Copenhagen together. Contemplative, meditative and awe-inspiring in equal measure, Languoria is a breathtaking collaborative debut. Together, these artists have uncovered a new dimension of their respective practices, creating music that is difficult to categorise, otherworldly, yet strangely comforting.

The official launch of Languoria will take place at Unsound Kraków on 16th October, in a special show incorporating costume and set design by Ukrainian artist PLANETA and lighting by Poland’s Jacqueline Sobiszewski. Other live shows by Sofie Birch and Antonina Nowacka will take place this year in Paris, New York and Mannheim, Germany, with more to follow in 2023.