This House is the symbiotic alliance between Dutch singer-songwriter G.W. Sok (aka Jos Kleij), founder of the legendary no wave, anarcho punk band The Ex, and the experimental universe of Madrid-born, Copenhagen-based guitarist and producer Ignacio Córdoba. Soft Rains Will Come is the duo’s sophomore album, following the 2024 experimental collage album Is This A House. Córdoba created the cover’s collage, and G.W. Sok designed the album’s artwork.
The basic vocals and guitar tracks were recorded at G.W. Sok’s home in Amsterdam in November 2023. Later, Córdoba recorded Danish drummer Søren Høi and synth player Kristian Tangvik, transforming This House’s sound into much sharper, rhythmic territories.
Soft Rains Will Come uses rhythm as architecture, from G.W. Sok’s commanding, hypnotic pulse of the spoken word delivery of the poetic lyrics to Córdoba’s repetitive and minimalist guitar lines, Høi’s robotic drumming, or Tangvik’s otherworldly synths. The eight songs spiral into intense, tight, dirty, and cyclical, in-your-face physical storms. Just when the songs reach their climax and hint that something big is about to crack open, they disintegrate quickly into complete chaos.
The album’s title and the song by this name refer to a poem by American Sara Teasdale, later adapted by sci-fi author Ray Bradbury’s short story about a lone house that stands intact after being obliterated by a nuclear bomb, and then is destroyed in a fire caused by a windstorm. G.W. Sok addresses issues of destructive politics, focusing on the perils of climate change, identity, relationships, and belonging, with references or inspirations from American poets Elizabeth Bishop, Charles Bukowski, and Billy Collins; French Jacques Prévert, and Canadian Margaret Atwood. Soft Rains Will Come feels urgent, claustrophobic, and dangerous. Most importantly, it is a thought-provoking cycle of songs that makes you want to act and shout.
The album will be released in a limited edition of 300 black bio-vinyl plus a download option.
Eyal Hareuveni
G.W. Sok (vocals), Ignacio Córdoba (guitars, synthesizers, programming, bass, backing vocals), Søren Høj (drums), P.J. Fossum (synthesizers)
