10 questions for Sophie Jurrjens

The next 24chambers edition is going to be a very special one! A soundwalk in Amsterdam with Sophie Jurrjens. Together we will walk and listen and of course we will keep our distance. 

Sophie Jurrjens (1992) is a composer and creative entrepreneur interested in combining sound and scenery. After finishing the bachelor Musician 3.0, at the Conservatory Utrecht in 2015, she graduated from the master Interfaculty ArtScience at the Royal Conservatory / Royal Academy of the Art The Hague in 2017. Currently Sophie is developing the Off-Track app. Through composing music for specific locations, she transforms the experience of going for a walk. Off-Track invites people to go outside and experience their surroundings in a unique way. To get to know Sophie a little bit better we asked her 10 questions!

Request an invitation for the soundwalk here. 

1.What can we expect at this 24chambers edition?
I invite you to go outside with me and to experience your surroundings in a different way. While going for a walk through Amsterdam West you will be listening to the music I composed for the route you are walking. The music adds an extra layer to your surroundings: sometimes it energizes – sometimes it relaxes.

2. What made you choose to become a composer?
My mother and my sister are both classical pianists and as long as I remember, I‘ve always been surrounded by music. As a child I’ve had lessons in playing the violin, singing and piano. While playing Bach or Mozart, my favourite moments would be if I accidently played the wrong note. The fact that I could change an entire piece of music by just playing one different note was just magical for me. I still experience the same feeling while composing my music now.

3. What got you hooked on composing music for specific locations?
While going for my daily morning walk on a cold Sunday evening in the winter of 2016, I was listening to the music I was writing for my graduation project at my master ArtScience. The music I was listening to was calm and relaxing. Exactly at the moment I decided to deviate from the path to make a picture of a frozen branch, the music turned in a more tensive part. All of a sudden the music fitted my environment perfectly. It felt like I was in a movie; where previously the trees moved quietly on the wind they suddenly seemed to warn me of something. Back at home I saw I had been away for just 10 minutes, it felt like an entire day. The experience was so mind blowing that I couldn’t imagine how it would be if my music would suit the entire walking route. The idea for Off-Track was born.

4. How do you transform the experience of going for a walk?
We believe that by adding music to a walking route, going outside is transformed into an experience. Through composing music for specific locations, we transform the experience of going for a walk.

5. If you would not be a composer/creative entrepreneur, what would you be?
Does it count when I say I would have liked to be a singer/pianist/presenter/actress/videographer/photographer/fashion designer/writer? I can’t imagine my life without creating art.

6. With which composer would you drink your moring coffee?
I would ask James Blake how he likes his coffee and I would invite Tyler the Creator to bake some cinnamon waffles for us. 

7. Which composer fits your personality best?
Definitely James Blake: his harmonies, lyrics, and melodies: everything he creates.

8. What are you afraid of?
Not being able to listen, create or dance on music anymore.

9. What is your favorite music piece and why?
I tend to have the bad habit that once I hear a song and I like it, I listen to it so often that I can’t listen to it anymore. That’s why I try to keep the songs I like as small treats for special occasions. Here are a few of my favourites. Because of the valuable memory behind it, because the way it makes me feel, or just because I find it beautiful.
Zimushka Zima – Alexander Basilov (played quatre-mains by my mother Irina Parfenova and sister Helena Basilova)
How We Got By – James Blake, Mount Kimbie
Schietlood – De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig
Move your Feet – Junior & Senior
Free – San Proper, David Olivier

10. What more do you have in store? What will the future bring?
There’s so much I want to do: I love fantasizing about the future. For Off-Track, I hope to be able to contribute to people’s lives all over the world by creating a moment of rest and happiness in their day. 

https://www.solisscenery.com/