Band of the Day: Anna Meredith

Anna Meredith‘s fresh attempt at trying something a bit different to what she’s made a name for herself with was always going provide a momentary setback in terms of success, but that won’t phase her none. She’ll know as well as we do that she won’t have to go far to be right back in amongst admired contemporaries. She’s got both the compositional talent and performance credentials from her climb up towards being lauded to ensure that for her next ascent in a different area of her chosen profession, she’s well prepared.

Having her music performed by orchestras and being called upon by the BBC to commentate on the Proms and judge young talent, she’s recognised in the industry as “a tour de force” of a contemporary composer. Her specialty clearly lies in the electronica genre, so her transition from composer to performer/act has seen her forté remain the centrepiece in her current compositions. Touring around in the past year or so has seen Anna almost develop two stage personas and reputations, since her “eclectic” boomwhacker-enhanced performances – one of which I gratefully got to witness – remain a separate project from her previous concertos.

Indeed, with the release of her debut EP Black Prince Fury – which includes both the Ratatat-esque ‘Orca’ and the stirring juggernaut ‘Nautilus’, a track which (to her delight) featured in DrownedInSound’s ‘Singles of the Year 2012’ – Anna can expect to find herself playing more festivals and having her name bandied around for her current project, and reap more success she’s earned with a superb EP release.

Can we expect more releases from Anna next year? We have to hope so. Anna worked on the EP over the past year, but whether or not she’s been working on a second or a debut album remains to be seen. Again, we have to hope so.

If you’d like to listen to some of her compositions, including the unusual Songs for the M8 compilation, they can be found via the Soundcloud link below. Black Prince Fury is on Spotify and iTunes to buy (the former is linked below too).

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