Singer and harpist Sophye Soliveau is originally from Guadeloupe, and grew up in a family that absolutely lives for music. Her father had a passion for gwo ka, the Antillean-Creole hand drum music, her brothers were totally into the R&B of the 1990s, and her mother didn't let a day go by without singing. No wonder then that her own path meandered through a multi-colored musical landscape. At the conservatory, Sophye studied classical harp and choral singing, and later immersed herself in jazz, gospel and many other genres. She is as much inspired by the choral work of the composer Francis Poulenc as material by Rachelle Ferrell and Bobby McFerrin. Soliveau was a member of the Afro-Caribbean groove group Ábàjade before starting out her promising solo career with Initiation (2022). She describes the album, which was mainly composed at night, as a ‘healing journey’ to transcend grief and share emotions.
