Wild and Bitter Fruits is the debut-EP of Quiet Sonia. Blending indierock, folk, post-rock and shoegaze – with inspiration from jazz, techno, ambient and modern classical – the result is a kaleidoscopic, multi-colored, genre-defying, almost mosaic-like listening experience, brimming with details and rewarding repeated listenings. Singer and guitarist Nikolaj Bruus has written, recorded and mixed Wild and Bitter Fruits almost entirely on his own (with the exception of much appreciated help from single bandmates and sporadic professional assistance), learning many things from scratch, and the result is an exercise in an almost dogma-less work with all the control and detail-work that follows.

Fronted by Nikolaj Bruus’ rich baritone-voice and evocative abstract lyrics – brooding, roaring and howling – and his often detailed and nuanced compositions on acoustic steel string guitar, Bruus’ playing and songwriting pays homage to introspective songwriters such as Nick Drake, Tim Buckley and Elliott Smith, and the almost spiritual or devotional quality of guitarists like Robbie Bashoe and John Fahey. As a rock band – accompanied by Thea Thorborg Pedersen (Violin), Frida Rolskov Pedersen (Piano, Vocals), Rasmus Jon Lundager (Organ, Synths), Jens Marl Christiansen (Drums), Anders Meyer (Electric Guitar) and Phillip Dyssegaard (Bass) – besides the occasional chamber feel of the acoustic setting, Quiet Sonia is also ethereal swells of fuzzed out guitars, lush synths and wheezing organs, bombastic distorted bass/drums, and layered intertwining male-female vocal harmonies (just to mention a few characteristics).

From the lush melodic and concise pop-songwriting of The Go Betweens, Wedding Present and Hüsker Dü – tightly crafted, direct and forceful with a seemingly volcanic furious power and energy – to the warm reflective atmosphere, longer narrative-like compositional structures and dynamic intricate arrangements of Talk Talk, Tindersticks and Bark Psychosis, Quiet Sonia draws on a broad palette of eclectic stylistic influences. At times pitch-black, anxious and somber, at times hopeful, dreamy and majestic. The music, though, is always characterized by an emotional urgency; a search for musical catharsis; a wish for communicating something deeply powerful and moving, from severe sonic attacks and harsh punishing bursts of sound to ecstatic beauty and pure bliss.