Described by Pitchfork as one of the most innovative voices in British music, Anna Meredith MBE is a genre-crossing composer and producer whose work straddles the worlds of contemporary classical, art pop, electronica and experimental rock
Composer, producer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music, Meredith’s sound is frequently described as ‘uncategorisable’ and ‘genre-defying’ and straddles the different worlds of contemporary classical, electronica and ambient, or as the Guardian concludes: ‘majestic bangers.’
Its Nautilus that to me, sums up what Anna Meredith is about. A cacophony of synths in an ascending ostinato that obliterates musical convention. Its time signature is as erratic as waves, and when the drum kick in, the song’s disparate elements fall out of sync, becoming a shattering wall of noise.
‘Two tremendous, insistent horn fanfares dovetail around each other before getting locked in a kind of histrionic stalemate, a beetle-on-its-back stutter’
pitchfork
Her debut album, Varmints was released in March 2016 on Moshi Moshi/PIAS to huge critical acclaim with 4 and 5-star reviews from press and media around the world including Pitchfork’s coveted Best New Music.
Nautilus was written as a sort of call to arms (for myself!) and was one of the first tracks I wrote when I started to work in electronics alongside my acoustic or orchestral writing …
© Anna Meredith | Faber Music
‘… this shift was my way to reclaim some power over my writing, making albums where I would be in complete control. Its a lovely full circle for this piece to now be rearranged back to an orchestral form. came up with the rising line whilst stomping along a beach in Scotland and experimenting with placing my steps across different parts of the material to create the shift in feel you hear roughly two-thirds in.’
