Lara Somogyi will release her second album, a [time] patterned, on Aug. 28 via Mercury KX, with the lead single “sojourn” out now. According to a press release, the album is “a work rooted in contemporary classical yet reaching far beyond it, … an intensely human document that reframes time not as a linear experience but as an emotional landscape.”
a [time] patterned unfolds across 11 compositions, which Somogyi describes as sonic environments or “rooms” the listener can move through. Written with producer Cyrus Reynolds, the album was shaped through tape loops, delay, and repetition to explore how patterns emerge, dissolve, and reform. In addition to layering and processing, Somogyi experiments with the harp’s sound through extended pedal techniques and object preparations. Somogyi’s press release says that after the death of her father, the album became not just a technical process but also a “deeply personal … attempt to examine how time is felt rather than measured: joy is rhythmic, grief has structure, and healing forms patterns.” The album includes field recordings, including birdsong from her birthplace of Kauai, alongside background strings arrangements and textural experimentation, featuring artists Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens) and Clarice Jensen (Max Richter).
A JUNO nominee, Somogyi describes herself as an artist who pushes the boundaries of her instrument and approaches the harp as a vehicle for exploration rather than tradition. She has classical roots from the Royal Academy of Music and was awarded an honorary Associate (ARAM) for her innovations in her field. Her work spans film, television, and collaborative composition, including collaborations with Bonobo, Ólafur Arnalds, the London Symphony Orchestra, and Bat For Lashes, and credits on Spike Lee’s Oscar-nominated Da 5 Bloods, Hans Zimmer’s Blue Planet II featuring Radiohead, and Ari Aster’s Eddington for A24. Learn more in Harp Column’s cover interview with Somogyi in our January-February 2020 issue.
a [time] patterned is available for pre-order now. Watch the lead single, “sojourn,” below.
