Sophie & Ives - Untie Me

Holmes Ives of Memnon, Oko Tek & Jette Ives has teamed with New Zealand Native Sophie Moleta to deliver a lush collection of beautiful soundscapes on ‘Untie Me.’ The LP was released on Ova Records in June however I am only getting my listen today. I have always been a huge fan of Ives work and no surprise, ‘Untie Me’ is stunning. Click through for a bit of the back story on this LP and watch for a review of the LP shortly.

The Story:

In the winter of 2002 U.S. based Holmes Ives was introduced to the Kiwi songstress Sophie Moleta . He had heard a song by her and the talented producer Marc Mitchel called "Love Has Come Again". It was through this song that Ives fell into the muse of Sophie. He contacted her to inquire about doing a remix and in that dialogue a friendship began that soon blossomed into a loving crush. In those tenderest of moments in the nucleus of that moment, the song 'Awaken' was born. To Ives 'Awaken' represented the transformation from the noise and chaos of the lost heart to the euphony it's strings make when the heart finds that which all hearts desire...

Once 'Awaken' was completed Ives sent his composition through the mail 12,000 miles away to the other side of the planet to a place called Perth, Australia where Sophie lived. Unknown to Ives was that Sophie took his song , sat with it for days and worked with it weaving her poetry and voice into it's fabric. She sent it back to him snail mail to Washington D.C. and to his surprise 'Awaken' was now more complete than he could have ever imagined. It was through these musically rendered love letters that "Untie Me" emerged and it was through these songs that the lovers could unite and traverse the distance, cross the ocean and make love through music.

The two tried to meet one another in person but as struggling artists they could not get the funds together to make the long journey. After 10 months without even a kiss the letters and music could no longer sustain the passions and for the sake of their hearts they had to let go. But this body of work remains and like a window to the heart, "Untie Me" gives us an intimate musical communion of the love that exists all around us, woven into the leaves and the trees and in the currents of oceans. It is the universal tie that keeps all life bound together and Sophie & Ives have given us a glimpse of it through these songs.