Denmark-born, London-based Astrid Sonne is part of that growing band of classically trained musicians who have moved into the realm of the pop singer-songwriter. Like Julia Holter, Mica Levi or Owen Pallett, she seems to draw from her conservatoire training as obliquely as a previous generation of rock stars might have drawn from their art school training. Instead of showing off her virtuosity as a viola player or her skills at writing four-part harmony, Sonne manipulates stray elements of 20th-century modernism and beyond to illuminate her curious, elliptical songs.
