Marisa Anderson & Laura Cannell

Upset The Rhythm & Caugh by the River team up to invite two masterful musicians who both walk the line between traditional folk composition and improvised experiment.

Marisa Anderson channels the history of the guitar and stretches the boundaries of tradition. Her playing is fluid, emotional, and masterful, featuring compositions and improvisations that re-imagine the landscape of American music. Her deeply original work applies elements of minimalism, electronic music, drone and 20th century classical music to compositions based on blues, jazz, gospel and country music.

Originally from Northern California, Anderson dropped out of college at age nineteen to walk across the US and eventually landed in Portland, Oregon, where she currently lives. Classically trained, she honed her skills playing in country, jazz and circus bands. In 2009 she released her first solo guitar record, ‘The Golden Hour’, followed by ‘Mercury’ (2011) and ‘Traditional and Public Domain Songs’ (2013). More recently, she has been in demand as a collaborator and composer, contributing to recordings by Beth Ditto and Sharon Van Etten, and creating music for short films.

On her newest release, ‘Into the Light’ Anderson leaves Appalachia and the Delta blues behind as she journeys west, into the heart of the sun. Written as the soundtrack to an imaginary science-fiction western film, the record’s ten songs trace the story of a visitor lost and wandering on the shifting borderlands of the Sonoran desert. ‘Into the Light’ is shimmering and cinematic, the pieces built around pedal steel, lap steel and electric piano as well as Anderson’s signature guitar sound.

“Her sound has strength in restless variety…Anderson’s playing is heartfelt and utterly American- free from grandstanding and steeped in respect for the old tradition.” WIRE

Based in rural East Anglia, Laura Cannell’s work draws on the emotional influences of the landscape and the sometimes dissonant chords of early and medieval music. With deconstructed bow and the extraordinary sound of double recorder, Laura’s music has grown out of unearthed fragments that became improvised pieces. Her music encompasses both wild animal calls and long forgotten liturgical fragments, which drawn through Laura’s music seem to originate from the same, ahistorical place. With a background in traditional folk, early and experimental music, she creates a solitary minimalist chamber music, where one player makes all the harmonies.

She has released two acclaimed solo albums, ‘Quick Sparrows over the Black Earth‘ (2014) and ‘Beneath Swooping Talons‘ (2015) and has established herself as a versatile live performer with a unique ability to conjure up transcendental and otherworldly atmospherics in all kinds of contexts. She is also a frequent collaborator with the likes of Richard Dawson, Rhodri Davis, Charles Haywood and Mark Fell. Live appearances to date include concerts at The Barbican, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Le Guess Who?, Supernormal, TUSK and Cambridge Folk Festival.

“One of the most exciting instrumentalists around” – The Guardian