After an early childhood in Ethiopia and a stint in Vietnam, Sofia Jernberg moved to Sweden aged ten to attend choir school. But, she tells Abi Bliss in The Wire 365, as a teenager she realised her interests went beyond the Western choral tradition and steeped herself in the vocal work of Tuvan throat-singer Sainkho Namtchylak, the glossolaic interludes of Sidsel Endresen and the unrestrained performances of Phil Minton and Diamanda Galás: “I started to explore and I realised that I couldn’t really identify only with classical music. So I called all the record stores and asked them for something with experimental voice, or with voice and no words... When I was younger, I really dug deep and I tried to liberate myself from influence as much as I could. I have influences, of course, but they are not so clear to me.”

"Solo In A Garage 2014"
I had a residency in the countryside in Sweden. I worked in a garage and recorded myself on a Zoom. In this piece I'm trying to sing multiple pitches at the same time.

"Solo In A Church 2013"
This was my first time working solo. Normally I would to improvise on the spot. I got the opportunity to work and record in a church outside Oslo. In this piece I'm trying to camouflage my breathing (only half of the piece). I'm making sounds with my lips while I breath.

"Let's"
I wanted to work with text in a different way. I asked my Facebook friends to write something beginning with "Let's..." I got lots of material and composed the text by putting together my own and their phrases. This is a demo recording of "Let's" performed by The New Songs (Eve Risser, David Stackenäs, Kim Myhr and myself).

Sofia Jernberg performs at Sweden’s Halmstad Opera And Vocal Festival on 18 July. Fire! Orchestra’s Enter is released by Rune Grammofon