Anna & Elizabeth

Anna & Elizabeth stand at the vanguard of tradition and the avant-garde. What began in 2011 as two artists sharing a love of Appalachian music has evolved into a visionary project that utilizes multimedia such as visual art, movement, and experimental film. Through their immersive creative process and bold interpretations, Anna & Elizabeth pioneer new ways of understanding old songs and stories.

In winter 2018, Anna & Elizabeth will release a new full-length album produced by Benjamin Lazar Davis of avant-pop outfit Cuddle Magic, featuring Jim White of The Dirty Three on drums. This new project expands on their recent studio release, the 7-inch vinyl single Hop High/Here in the Vineyard--also produced by Lazar Davis and his collaborator Alec Spiegelman--which signaled a new sonic direction with its sparse banjo and fiddle lines, pulsating pump organ, electronics, and swooping woodwind and string arrangements.

Archival research and visits with elders are the bedrock of the duo’s creative process. In preparation for this new record, Anna & Elizabeth spent months under the flickering fluorescent lights at the Library of Congress and at archives in the places they grew up--Vermont and Virginia, respectively--unearthing forgotten sounds recorded by song collectors some 80 years ago. During a residency at the prestigious MacDowell Colony, they continued experimenting and making art with the songs they found, discovering the many vibrating worlds within them. The pair’s interest in experimental music and avant-rock is paramount in this new cycle of work. They continue to delve deeper into the works of pioneers such as Meredith Monk, Nick Cave, and Laurie Anderson, as well as drone musicians and avant composers who use field recordings in order to further unpack these old songs.

Since forming six years ago, Anna & Elizabeth have released two acclaimed full-length albums—Sun to Sun (2012) and Anna & Elizabeth (2015). They have performed at hundreds of venues worldwide, including National Sawdust (Brooklyn), Newport Folk Festival, NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts, Cambridge Folk Festival (UK) and Pickathon. On stage they marry the spartan simplicity of two voices in harmony with acoustic instruments, percussion, synth, pump organ, film projections, choreography, and crankies--illustrated, hand-cranked scrolls depicting songs and stories as they are performed. Bound to entrance the open-eared listener, Anna & Elizabeth’s live show pulses with the many layers they awaken in old songs.