Suki Sou
About Suki Sou
Suki is a cheerfully cantankerous creative who draws from arcane inspirations from across the globe. You can hear traces of the blissful minimalism of Terry Riley; the soft and wobbly electronica that Hans-Joachim Roedelius played on his ‘Wenn Der Südwind Weht’ album and ‘Sowiesoso’ when he was in Cluster; the electro-acoustic compositions of Joanna Brouk; the quiet focus of Eliane Radigue, the hypnotic arpeggios of Laurie Spiegel; the fizziness of Suzanne Ciani’s pop and pour, Raymond Scott’s research beeps, and the syncopation of Tom Dissevelt.
Equally influential to Sou is vivid memories of the smell of cigarette smoke from her grandmother’s room listening to Taiwanese pop star Teresa Teng in the rain, eating cantonese wonton soup, and watching Hong Kong animation and news broadcasted by TVB Pearl channel 1.
Suki was born in the former Portuguese colony Macau, to a Burmese father who was an electronics engineer and half Japanese, half Chinese mother, who was an accountant. “My parents sent me to a Catholic boarding school in Berkshire to study when I was eight years old. I travelled to the UK on my own with just a dictionary; My mother’s theory was that I needed to learn the language all by myself, without anyone's help”, Sou recalls.
After moving from London to the Peak District, Suki set up a home studio and began using Buchla, Moog modular systems and rare analogue systems like the ARP 2500, ARP 2600 and Serge, Synthi from Willem Twee Studio in the Netherlands – all of which helped create this sensory wonder.
In August 2023, Suki was named on of the ‘50 Key Modular Artists’ by Electronic Sound magazine.