Sol Seppy

“I have been recording my own stuff since I was knee-high to a grasshopper,” says Sophie Michalitsianos, “ but record labels would often try to get me into boob tube and match me with a trendy producer, and I wanted to say, ‘Look, I can this by myself.’”
Sophie – a softly spoken, classically trained Australian who records under the moniker “Sol Seppy” – is true to her word: she wrote and recorded her debut album at her home studio in rural upstate New York, with help from her boyfriend and various musician friends. It was an idyllic recording session: “In my studio I can open the window, play my little blue piano and the birds come down to hear it.” If that sounds like she’s away with the fairies, you should hear The Bells of 1 2 – a dream-pop gem that has drawn comparisons with Mazzy Star and the Cocteau Twins. After a few years spent touring with Sparklehorse, waiting tables and singing on adverts, her number is finally up. “In Retrospect,” she ponders, “I wasn’t ready until now.”
- Independent On Sunday

April 06

Named after the space between numbers, this album is the sound of spending far too much time alone in a cabin, deep in the woods of upstate New York, possibly with the collected 1980s words of 4AD.
Australian-raised Sophie Michalitsianos’ debut album reeks of spooked solitude, ethereal visions (“Nobody came and the mist fell down/My friends transformed into cane toads”) in a voice that can suitably express its owner’s mood swings from ecstasy to agony. The reverb-soaked, enchanted piano lullabies Wonderland and Injoy make clear why Mark Linkous sought her contribution for the last two Sparklehorse albums, while Move, conversely, unleashes a torrent of guitar/synth trip-hop. Crucially, the myriad pop hooks that elevate Come Running and Slo Fuzz suggest that should she ever return to urban civilization and tackle the mainstream, Sol Seppy might reasonably clean up.
- Mojo

April 06

Having earned her musical stripes at Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music and as a session musician for Mark Linkous’s much fêted late-90’s lo-fi rockers Sparklehorse, Sophie Michalitsianos has now embarked upon a solo project for which, perhaps wisely, she has afforded herself a pseudonym: Sol Seppy. Heavily aping Mazzy Star’s slow-motion art rock (but with less fuzz), she infuses The Bells Of 1 2 with liquid guitar chords, glassy vocals and a general aura of “Look at me, I’m both beautiful and beguiling.” Indeed she is. - Q Magazine

The Bells Of 1 2 is a warm, understated set led by former Sparklehorse collaborator Sophie Michalitsianos. The English-born, Australian-raised songwriter writes music that is part Mazzy Star, part Cocteau Twins – all ethereal melodies and dark lyrical themes which grab you on first listen. An unexpected delight.
- Music Week

January 06
Sol Seppy
Who is she? Sophie Michalitsianos is a New York-based singer, instrumentalist and composer. Brought up in Australia, she moved to America to work with Sparklehorse. Her early solo efforts were scuppered when her house and recording equipment went up in flames. But as her debut single, Move, and forthcoming album, The Bells of 1 2, prove, the false starts, the wait, possibly even the fire, were worth it. Touching base with Mazzy Star, the Cocteau Twins, Stina Nordenstam and Anja Garbarek, Michalitsianos’s songs are utterly of their place (the solipsistic tail-chasing of a home studio), yet intriguingly internationalist and weightless. And her voice is amazing. Set to ensnare both lovers of the eclectic and those savvy folk who choose songs for launch-pad shows such as The OC, The Bells of 1 2 is likely to be one of the word-of-mouth albums of 2006.
- Sunday Times - Culture

January 18, 06

Good things come to those who wait, apparently, and Sol Seppy has certainly waited. English-born, Australian-reared Seppy began writing music for TV documentaries and swapping her vocal skills for studio time at EMI studios at 16. Turning down record deals, the classically trained pianist and cellist instead went to the Sydney Conservatorium Of Music, then moved to the US, where Sparklehorses’s Mark Linkous invited her to sing and play on his band’s tour with Radiohead and Sparklehorses’s albums Good Morning Spider and It’s A Wonderful Life. Having now set up her own recording studio in New York, Seppy’s ready to show the world what she can do: Hope Sandoval-esque vocals, intimate folk pop, grungy choruses, psychedelic synths, hip hop beats…and that’s just her single Move. Expect more eclecticism from debut album, The Bells Of 1 2.
- Metro

March 06

Sol Seppy is the work of former child prodigy Sophie Michalitsianos who spent her childhood between the UK and Australia fighting off overeager record companies. Taking a more considered route she studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before a move to the States and an invite to join Sparklehorse on tour, supporting Radiohead no less. She stayed with the band for the ‘Good Morning Spider’ and ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ albums before setting off once more on her own musical path. After losing her first home studio to a fire, she persevered and two years on has delivered this haunting debut engineered and produced by herself in the reborn facility. Her time with Sparklehorse shows and there is a quiet menace to these songs, on the surface tender and delicate but with a surprising depth. This is an enchanting debut from a talent who has been quietly working away on her own terms and deserves our full attention.
- Clash Magazine