AFTER a sold-out UK tour in autumn 2024, Anna Erhard returns this spring for another dozen concerts and will be visiting Devon next Thursday (March 20) when she plays Exeter Cavern.
The Berlin-based, Swiss-born singer released her highly anticipated third album Botanical Garden in September 2024 and was celebrated by the press throughout Europe.
In the UK, BBC 6Music supported the singer with heavy rotation airplay.
Her songs, somewhere between the spirit of Kurt Vile and early Beck, are an eclectic mix of distorted guitars and lo-fi keyboards.
With characteristic nonchalance, Anna performs mischievous lyrics, setting her everyday life and her wanderings to music
"The songs I wrote in the beginning were really big and universal," reflected Anna. "Now I feel I condense my writing to the smallest possible thing, almost.”
She put out her first solo material in 2019, following the breakup of Basel folk collective Serafyn.
"Writing these songs under my own name was really freeing. It felt like I was giving up everything I had already built to start over, which was scary but exciting."
When lockdown halted that fresh start, it also unleashed a new sense of purpose in songwriting.
"I was dreaming myself away from this pandemic situation," she continued. "I guess I missed this whole goofy part of life, this lightness, and maybe because that was missing so much in my life, I found it in music."
Her 2021 debut album Short Cut showcased her musical versatility, pairing fuzzed-out guitar hooks with electronic textures and samples, underscored by that perfectly crisp, droll vocal.
This was followed in 2022 by Campsite, whose nostalgic eponymous track earned plaudits from the likes of Marc Riley, Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne and John Kennedy.
Botanical Garden continues in this vein, its deceptively slacker ambience masking slick arrangements and watertight, driving percussion – with no shortage of colourful synthlines courtesy of her pocket piano.
Tickets for the gig can be obtained from https://exetercavern.net.