Anja Schneider releases her first album in nine years on new label Sous Music. Sometimes you need to step away from everything that’s familiar to really grow and challenge yourself as an artist. Or in Anja Schneider’s case, hit the reset button entirely. A new album. A new label. The Berlin-based artist has never felt more out of her comfort zone. Or inspired. The musical manifestation of this bold new era is ‘SoMe’, a nine-track calling card that not only represents Schneider’s own creative apex and the freedom that accompanies it, but the freewheeling nature of new imprint Sous on which it finds its home. As is the case with all Schneider’s productions, this is a deeply personal work. But what makes it shine above everything else that has come before it, is how expressive and free it is, while remaining entirely authentic to her own musical history, passions and personal story. The project begun in November 2016, in Anja’s basement to be precise. Getting back to her music digging roots she whiled away the hours among the dusty boxes of her vinyl collection – re-immersing herself in old jungle and D&B records, classic house and the Berlin-bred techno of the ’90s that she fell in love with when she first moved to the German capital in 1993. If she was to look forward to her new musical vision, it had to pay due respect to her past. Alongside her co-producer and partner Jan-Eric Scholz, set studio dates turned into lost afternoons, then weekends. If Anja wasn’t touring or spending time with her son, she was engrossed in free-flowing productions sessions, channeling musical impressions past and present, recent trips to South Africa that cemented a love for ragga and crafting outstanding vocal works that rate among the finest of her career.
