Antony and the Johnsons

Antony and the Johnsons

Antony and the Johnsons is a New York-based music group active since 1995 and now known as ANOHNI and the Johnsons. The act is fronted by ANOHNI, who begins performing and recording solo in the mid-1990s before assembling a backing group under the Antony and the Johnsons name. The project develops in New York City’s club scene, building an early following at venues such as the Kitchen and the Knitting Factory.

Formation and early work

ANOHNI starts out making songs for Blacklips Performance Cult and other late-night cabaret settings before turning more fully toward music. In 1995 she forms Antony and the Johnsons as a self-styled backing group. She receives a New York Foundation for the Arts award for performance art and emergent forms, which helps her record the group’s debut album, originally titled Blue Angel.

The debut remains unreleased until David Tibet of Current 93 signs the act to his Durtro label. It appears in 1998 under the title Antony and the Johnsons, and is later reissued by Secretly Canadian in 2000 and again in 2004. The album features Baby Dee on harp, François Géhin on bass, Todd Cohen on drums, Charles Neilson on guitar, and additional string and woodwind players.

Style and key recordings

The group’s early recordings are described as modern torch songs built around ANOHNI’s multi-octave voice and chamber pop arrangements. Songs such as “Cripple and the Starfish” and “Divine” stand out from this period, with “Divine” written as a tribute to the late transvestite movie star Divine.

Further releases follow in the early 2000s, including the three-song EP I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy, which contains covers of “Mysteries of Love” and “Soft Black Stars”. The release also includes “You Stand Above Me” and “The Lake”, the latter adapted from an 1827 Edgar Allan Poe poem. Antony and the Johnsons also issue a shared EP, Live at St. Olave’s, with Current 93, recorded at Saint Olave’s Church in London. Another Current 93-linked seven-inch follows, with “Virgin Mary” on the B-side.

Line-up and collaborations

By the early 2000s the group’s line-up includes Todd Cohen, Jeff Langston on bass, Jason Hart on piano, Julia Kent on cello, Joan Wasser on violin, and Maxim Moston on violin. ANOHNI also works with Lou Reed after he hears I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy; he invites her to contribute guest vocals to The Raven and to tour with him in 2003. She also appears on Reed’s live album Animal Serenade. Guest contributions to the group’s later work include Rufus Wainwright, Devendra Banhart, Lou Reed and Boy George on I Am a Bird Now.

Albums and recognition

The Lake follows through Secretly Canadian and includes Lou Reed on “Fistful of Love” with guest vocals and guitar. In 2005 the group releases its second full-length album, I Am a Bird Now, which brings major critical attention and wins ANOHNI the Mercury Prize. The band later releases the EP Another World in 2008, followed by the albums The Crying Light in 2009 and Swanlights in 2010.

These later records move toward a less melodic and more experimental sound while continuing the group’s chamber pop and alternative leanings. Their work is also associated with alternative rock, ambient, art pop, baroque pop and indie rock.