Emily Brontë is best known as the author of 'Wuthering Heights' but when she died at the age of 30 from tuberculosis, she had not only left the world one of its greatest gothic novels, she had also penned a collection of poetry. As if channeling the voice of Emily Brontë, Swedish singer, composer, and musician Sofie Livebrant has unearthed eight of Emily Brontë’s poems and set them to music almost two hundred years after the writer’s untimely death.
If the mark of true genius is longevity – then to bring these poems back to life centuries later is the brainchild of Sophie Livebrant.
Not since a nineteen-year-old Kate Bush leaped onto the music scene in the mid-seventies with her interpretation of Wuthering Heights has Brontë’s haunting writing made it into song.
Brontë’s short and tragic life was steeped in grief and sadness. Her poetry expresses that sense of loss, loneliness, and despair – while recognising the stark beauty of nature all around her. This is not the first time Sophie Livebrant has found inspiration in the voices of female poets – she has previously set the words of Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath to music.
‘Weep the Time Away’ is her sixth album. She has a sweet and beautiful voice – which brought to mind Laura Marling, Lisa Hannigan, Joni Mitchell, and Sandy Denny.
Sophie treats the poetry of Emily Brontë with the utmost respect. The opening track ‘Mayflower’ – one of Brontë’s better-known poems, instantly brought to mind Leonard Cohen but as the album progresses, it explores and experiments with various sounds and styles – yet always empathetic to the sadness and introspection of Brontë’s deep mourning and sadness.
From the second track ‘Shall Earth’ to the third ‘Deep’, there is a sense of Brontë almost longing for her own demise, perhaps even prophetically predicting it to the final track ‘Night’, which has a sense of denouement, an ending that conjures a spiritual, heavenly, and angelic finale that elevates and mesmerizes; a stunningly beautiful build-up that lives long in the mind after the music ends.
The entire album is managed with such sensitivity and insight – a true, honest tribute to a beautiful soul. Sofie Livebrant gently unveils each episode, instilling in every word a sense of the poet’s original meaning – the way in which Brontë manages to lay bare all her wounded emotions, with brevity and bravery – a woman writing about her feelings so openly would have been considered outrageous for the times.
‘Weep The Time Away’ is steeped in the English folk music tradition – the kind of music you could imagine being played around the Yorkshire moors. Sofie, along with her producer Johan Lindstrom have mixed and experimented with various influences to create something very special on the album. It is a musical discovery – one to play over and over again and constantly discover something new – the multi-layers and textures of Brontë’s poetry so fittingly woven with modernity, with jazz influences, folk-rock, and genre-defying nuances.