From Sun Ra’s seminal work to Serbian erotic dramas and instrument gifts from her boyfriend, Sofie Royer unpacks the influences behind her captivating new fourth album, before/after.
It’s quite an achievement to sit at the peak of fashion, art and music and remain devoid of pretension. But Austrian-Iranian artist and musician Sofie Royer does so with ease. From sharing a flat with the NxWorries while living in LA and working at her now-label Stones Throw, collaborating with esteemed Houses like Prada and Chanel, winning the EU’s prestigious Music Moves Europe Award (the talent-scouting prize that aided Rosalía and Dua Lipa in their early careers) in January 2026, and sculpting out a meticulous solo canon across a handful of excellent solo albums. The polymath is effortless, innovative, enigmatic – although “not as subversive or as mysterious as people think I am,” she joked with Wonderland at Eurosonic Festival at the beginning of the year.
Royer has recently unveiled her fourth and arguably most conceptual album, before/after. Based around the revolving, opposing yet magnetic ideas of the record’s chosen title, atop daringly diverse production, the Vienna-based visionary tries to unpack where the past and the future intersect, and how much the way we feel about the former impacts the latter.
Artisanal and erudite, Royer puts care and craft into her work in a rare and refreshing manner. So what influenced the making of before/after? Exclusively for Wonderland, below, the artist curates a list of art that inspired the making of her new album.
Listen to before/after…
Take in Sofie’s picks…
Sweet Movie by Dušan Makavejev
Described as a surrealist erotic comedy drama film, it’s been one of my favourites since I saw it as a teenager. Sadness, humour, surrealism are all themes that play a big role in my records, both in production and writing.
The Glenn Gould Reader
Glenn Gould is perhaps my favourite pianist of all time, largely because of his huge obsession with Bach, which I too am afflicted with. Whenever I want to break away from working on the album, but not totally delve off the deep end into reading something entirely unrelated, this is my big respite.
When Sun Comes Out by Sun Ra
I love this album to death. It’s like an abstract painting that I can look at in different moods and times of my life, and it will show itself differently to me.
Radio Klassik Stephansdom is the St. Stephen’s church’s radio station here in Vienna, Austria.
I have a handheld/portable, solar-powered emergency radio (complete with flashlight) that I walk through the house at regular intervals; it’s on from the minute I wake up pretty much, while I’m doing anything around the house. They have such an excellent selection of classical music, extremely minimal talking, and no ads. Aside from their music programming, Holy Mass is broadcast live, as well as sermons and organ symphonies from different churches; it’s incredible. You can stream online too: https://radioklassik.at/
Leopold Museum’s permanent exhibition “Vienna 1900”.
I am fascinated by Vienna’s fin de siècle; anything to do with the city I live in’s harsh dichotomies of that time between social classes, monarchs, intellectuals, tradition vs. modernity. These discrepancies played into the dichotomies of “before” vs “after” in my album. The aesthetic pluralism of painting, literature, music, theatre, dance, furniture, and architecture can be seen there — it’s like a time capsule into that era.
Kai Althoff: and then leave me to the common swifts
I can’t get enough of this edition from his exhibition at MoMA, I revisit this so much, the movement in his figures, the materials, the shapes of the canvas, the figures, the colours used!
Epiphone Coronet Guitar
My boyfriend gave this to me for Christmas, and its light body has made it one of my favourite guitars to play. I’m so partial to its sound, popularised by Pete Doherty.
Paris Bar Confidential by Michele Würthle, Steidl Vetrag
I was lucky enough to get this signed by Michele, and as an avid documentarian of my own life I always enjoy looking at others’ practice doing this; how they see and process their reality.
My Walkman, with Todd Rundgren’s The Very Best of Todd Rundgren inside.
Got this specific cassette on one of my many trips to dig for cassettes with my former boss, Peanut Butter Wolf. I will religiously take this out with me on whatever errands I need to run so I can still listen to music. Todd Rundgren is a huge inspiration on my own songwriting and production.
Supermarkt by Roland Klick
Another evergreen favourite of mine. I have original promotional posters from the film’s release, as well as the title theme by Marius West, “Celebration on 7”.
