Sopa Boba

CD version. That Moment is an album by Sopa Boba, a Belgian and Dutch project that presents itself as an oratorio of the present age: a dramatic tale told in spoken word over a string quartet and harsh modular synthesizers. Released by Sub Rosa in February 2025, it adapts the text of the same name by the Moldovan writer Nicoleta Esinencu, a caustic satire of a society in which everything and everyone is for sale.

The project brings together the dramaturg Jean Vangeebergen, who also made the artwork, the musician Pavel Tchikov of Ogives, and the narrator GW Sok, the Dutch singer who left The Ex two decades ago and has since worked with Oiseaux-Tempête among others, bringing to each project the dry wit and caustic worldview noted by The Quietus. Tchikov composed, recorded and mixed the album at La Rouille and plays the modular synths. Two violins, viola and cello make up the quartet, with guests adding more synths on two tracks and a viola solo on another. Gabriel Séverin mastered it at Laboratoire Central.

The story starts from a real event in present-day Moldova, a father who cut off his son's finger with an axe as punishment for stealing a little money from his wallet. It unfolds in seven chapters over 55 minutes, each titled after a kind of moment. In The Quietus's account, the synths of the opening That Sweet Moment pummel the listener while the strings puncture the mass with a keening tone, and Sok speaks in the silences. That Perfect Moment carries the paranoia and menace of corruption, and in the closing That Magical Moment the modular synths finally get the space to let rip.

Reviewing the album for The Quietus in March 2025, the critic admitted that the tale is not easy and the opening track not the easiest of starts, but thanked the heavens for Sok, "who uses all his stagecraft to fully inhabit the tale and worldview of the young boy." The verdict was plain: "stick in there, and you will gain enlightenment."

This is the CD edition on Sub Rosa, catalogue number SRV579, released on 21 February 2025.