Sometimes I feel like I’m slipping as a Canadian music fan. Today’s case in point: Sophia Stel. I first heard her name when Vitesse X released a remix of the title track of Stel’s 2024 EP Object Permanence (above). The melancholy vocal hits just right, and balancing it against the uptempo drums is a killer effect. I’ve gone back to that track again and again since I first heard it.
That was a couple weeks ago, and I finally got to the rest of Stel’s music in my new music queue. Turns out that Stel is from Vancouver, and her debut EP came out last September.
Object Permanence is mellower and more introspective than the Vitesse remix – it’s a lot more keyboard, guitar and vocal. Stel’s auto-tuned vocal is drenched in reverb, echoing in the sparseness between the other elements, punctuated by an occasional electric guitar hit (on “No Pressure”) or the pulsing beat and synth beds of “You Could Hate Me”:
Object Permanence seems like a fitting followup to yesterday’s STARNAMEDSUN piece – both Canadian electronic artists creating music that’s somewhat opaque and ephemeral, moody and entrancing.
There’s something nostalgic about Stel’s record though, reflected in the video above, that evokes a sense of wistfulness for simpler times and easier connections. It lines up with this interview with Range that reveals Stel an LG flip phone user. Old school.
There is redemption in the final track on the EP. “I’m Not Alone”, a major-key, kinetic song about the thrill of a new love interest:
I’m not alone
Like I said I was at all
I just didn’t want to tell them about ya
I take one sip and then the veil starts to fall
And I’m telling everyone all about ya
