A. G. Cook writes moving new tribute to SOPHIE

Cook's new written tribute was shared yesterday (25 April), with the PC Music label founder writing, "I’m still processing Sophie’s life... her nature, her work, her beauty. She was laser-focused and exceptionally intelligent, but also sensitive and perceptive. It didn’t matter whether we were talking about people or relationships or materials or music - she approached every topic with the love, care and intensity of someone who has truly lived."

In his tribute, Cook wrote about SOPHIE's music and when they first met (in October 2012). He revealed it was "an unlikely meeting before "BIPP" and before PC Music, both of which would materialise the following June." On discovering SOPHIE's music via SoundCloud, Cook wrote, "I couldn’t believe that there was someone out there, let alone someone in London, with such a strong vision and almost no regard for the walls between pop and experimental art."

Cook also wrote about their time in the studio, travels, playing shows together, working with people such as Charli XCX and other PC Music artists, and revisited fond memories, including one in LA where SOPHIE bonded with his partner Alaska Reid, "She was a startlingly honest person, but often spoke through her actions. One of my most treasured memories is of a funny warehouse set that I played in LA when Alaska and I started dating. Alaska came from a completely different music scene and was fairly bewildered by whatever it is I was about to do. Then just as I had to go ‘perform’, Sophie took her side and took great care to whisper little observations and explanations into her ear, demystifying all the music I was playing for the next 45 minutes. I knew that Sophie relished all the little in-jokes and details that we’d put into our tracks, but to see her eagerly transferring this knowledge to a significant person in my life reminded me of how important all that minutiae can be."

He also recalled the last time he saw SOPHIE, writing, "The last time I saw Sophie in person was sometime before the pandemic, a typically LA late night car ride to go get frozen yoghurt at the The Bigg Chill. I enjoyed being her friend on the inside/outside, and we would sometimes call each other to test out our most extreme ideas. She was very curious and encouraging when I eventually started to plan my rollout of 7G and Apple, and it triggered a long phone call sometime at the beginning of last year, in which she talked at length about her shifting plans for her own music. She was completely disenchanted with the conservative notion of ‘the album’, and was even more disillusioned with the limited potential of streaming. With a mix of self- aware hubris and total dedication, she sketched out this idea of an extremely generous platform that would give listeners all kind of access to stems, fragments, and revisions of her music. She believed that technology was wasting everyone’s time by attempting to emulate vinyl and radio, and that this infinitely generous approach was a logical endpoint for what music was always trying to be. She asked for my opinion. "Do you think it’s possible?""

Towards the end of his written tribute, Cook added, "I’m still processing Sophie’s death... This was the first paragraph that I started to write in what became a long eulogy - but I think I’m closer now."

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