SEQUIM — Inspiration can come from different parts of the world around her, Sophie Engkvist says — even from inside.
“It’s the whole world; I never know where it’s going to come from,” said the Sequim-based singer-songwriter.
That’s the root of Engkvist’s newest creation, a six-song album, “When We Rise,” that she created with the help of Sequim producer Jeremy Cays and a trio of instrumentalists.
Engkvist will showcase the album in an open house release party from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Adagio Bean and Leaf, 981 E. Washington St.
“When We Rise” is a 2½-year labor of love project. Engkvist and Cays will be on hand to talk about the album.
“These were the songs in my head [going] around and around,” Engkvist said. “They seemed to all fit the theme of ‘raising up the planet.’ It was logical to put it all together.”
On her recent collection, Engkvist provides the words and melody while guest artists Nancy Rumbel (of Tingstad &Rumbel fame) on English horn and oboe, local violin phenom Kate Powers and Nashville, Tenn., artist Mark Baldwin on guitar fill out the sound.
“Nancy is a producer, too, and I’d say, ‘If you have any other ideas, add them in,’ and many of them we used in the final product,” Cays said.
“You want them to create, to some degree. [When] you work with good people, it’s going to be better. They bring their own thing, and it ends up that much better than I could have done myself.”
“All of the artists are tremendous,” Engkvist said. Baldwin’s additions in particular were “beyond what we imagined; I didn’t have that overall sound in my mind at all.”
Cays was similarly effusive about the guitarist’s additions.
“He knows exactly what needs to happen,” Cays said. “You basically give them a song and they know what to do. In a way, you can consider it a roll of the dice, but it’s really not because [musicians like Baldwin] are really good.
“[What he added] warms up everything. It doesn’t make it cluttered or noisy-sounding.”
Putting it all together is Cays, the Carlsborg-based studio owner, producer and engineer with a bevy of local and regional clients.
The challenge with this collection, Cays said, was simply figuring out how the songs would evolve.
“That’s part of the fun of it. It’s really a discovery process, especially with Sophia,” Cays said. “I think she liked the process of trying new things, seeing what might work. She was really open to whatever.”
For Engkvist, music is more of a hobby — she’s been a full-time pet sitter in the area for about 18 years — but she’d like to make it more of her professional trade.
She was introduced to playing crystal bowls while living in Sedona, Ariz., and that sparked in her a world of music.
While she’s not pet sitting, making more music or learning to create her own music videos, Engkvist is busy promoting her album with a portion of sales she plans to donate to charities.
“This is not just about the music,” she says “[It’s] about being able to give back … and spreading the message of the music.”
See www.sophia engkvist.com for more, including samples from “When We Rise.”
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Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at [email protected].
