A singer.

A songwriter.

A clairvoyant.

A muse.

Sophia Knapp is all of those. She’s also something even rarer: an artist whose work isn’t tethered to time or place or genre, and certainly not our expectations of what it should be.

Since first beguiling fans with her fuzzed-out fairy rock band Lights (later known as Cliffie Swan) with three albums on Drag City Records starting in the late 2000s, Knapp has blazed a crooked path dotted with detours. She’s never been one for easy labels that don’t capture the full splendor of what she does.

“I’m a cosmic artist in the sense that I work with the esoteric arts and ancient systems of divination to connect with others, in addition to the realm of music,” she says.

After a long hiatus that wasn’t really that at all – “I’m always creating and always making music” – the L.A.-based Knapp is poised for a busy 2021. She’s got two new collaborations on the way, along with an EP, Dancing on Ashes, that reveals new shades of her cinematic songwriting.

She’s kept busy as a psychic and an in-demand Tarot reader and teacher, but her latest projects herald a reintroduction to Knapp’s music. Her last full-length album, Into the Waves (Drag City), came out in 2012, followed by a handful of singles and an entire collection of songs she recorded in 2014 but never put out. She thinks of songs as spells or invocations whose power holds sway over her; she didn’t want to relive unnecessary pain.

That’s a testament to the fact that there’s no sifting Knapp’s life from her art. A common thread ties together everything she creates, whether it’s her majestic visuals, a provocative Tarot reading that might leave you slack-jawed in wonder, or a heartsick song that lays bare Knapp’s vulnerability.

Perhaps a paradox to others, she sees clear connections between her roles as musician and mystic.

“I have always seen the two as being intertwined because both are forms of expression I’m channeling or somehow bringing in information through the senses and it’s not somehow coming from me,” she says. “I don’t make songs about the mystic arts, but it’s more that the imagery is woven into the songs and lyrics. At this point, it’s how I understand the world. It’s like a language.”

Her music has been panoramic enough to land her on bills with everyone from Bill Callahan and Marissa Nadler to Juana Molina, Destroyer, and filmmaker/musician Jim Jarmusch.

Knapp has also become a muse to other musicians who enlist her to collaborate. This summer she’ll release two tracks with Swedish rockers Dungen, a kaleidoscopic original (“Desert Moon”) and a shape-shifting rendition of “Song,” by the Swedish folk artist Turid.

Knapp wrote “Desert Moon” in California’s Joshua Tree as she watched the moon rise in a pastel October sky. “The lyrics, full of surrealist fragments of dreams and blunt expressions of longing, came together so quickly that the song appeared to have written itself,” she says.

She’s tight-lipped about a mysterious collaboration coming later this year, sharing only that it’s called Cowgirl in Sweden, “a soundtrack for a movie that doesn’t exist, made with Dominic Thomas of Whyte Horses.” But here’s a little teaser: The album – inspired by Lee Hazlewood’s 1970 cult classic, Cowboy in Sweden – was previously released on vinyl and immediately sold out in Europe.

Most revelatory of all this year is Knapp’s new five-song EP. Everything you need to know is right there in the title track’s name: “Dancing on Ashes” conveys both the loss of love and the redemption of moving beyond it.

Backed by her live band of L.A. shredders, Knapp is in celestial form on her latest batch of songs, her voice a silvery beacon guiding her musicians’ dusky accompaniment. You’ll hear echoes of California’s sun-kissed pop (a hint of the Beach Boys here, a glimmer of Stevie Nicks there). Some songs simmer with acoustic grace (“Flying Low”), others boil over with anthemic choruses (“Lazuli”).

It’s the sound of Knapp reclaiming her place as an artist whose songs cut close to the bone. She has no other choice.

“I cannot hide how I’m feeling. I can’t lie. And that’s part of why I took quite a bit of time off. I did perform locally around L.A. with my band, and I went to record in Sweden,” Knapp says.

“I’ve been very active, but I went through such a challenging, tumultuous period and didn’t feel like putting myself out there so much because I just felt very fragile,” she adds. “But now I feel strong again and ready to connect and share more. That’s why I do this.”

– James Reed