Anu, also known as Anu Kirk, is an American musician, composer and producer born in 1969 and associated with Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. He is classically trained as an oboe player and studies music at Dartmouth College under John Appleton and Christian Wolff.

Music career

In the 1990s, Anu is based in Los Angeles and fronts the post-industrial band Shockwork for several years. After that group ends, he works on film and television scoring and also produces and engineers for other acts. In the mid-1990s he begins issuing electronic and ambient music under the name Captain Kirk and joins the Internet music collective Chill Productions. His Captain Kirk album The Shape of the Universe reaches the number one position on the experimental charts of MP3.com for six months.

In 1997 he releases Songs for the Last Man on Earth, a solo studio project on Bastard Science. In the late 1990s he plays bass in the short-lived Dan Meyer Project and keyboards in Widget, the rock band led by film composer Tyler Bates. He also writes an educational CD-ROM titled Switched-On Sound, which covers the history of 20th-century music. In 2000 he relocates to San Francisco and later joins electro-clash group Luxxury long enough to appear on several EPs, including the Drunk EP, which he co-produces.

Other projects

The name Anu also refers to an American black metal band formed in 1995, with releases including the demos Demo '99 and Eternal Obscurity, the EPs Anu and III, the full-length Opus Funaerum and Nighthymns, and the compilation Nightwinds Return. All instruments and vocals on that project are performed by Drathrul.

ANU is also the name of a Tibetan rap group founded in 2016 by Gong Ba and Baya in Nangqian County, Qinghai province. The group releases an EP titled ANU and the singles “Joke”, “Fly”, “GA·GA” and “1376”, and participates in the singing competition Singer 2019.