“Antony and the Johnsons, has an incredible voice, disconcerting. Reaching a point of disquieting. His image is ambiguous, strange, leading us to uneasiness. He has magical songs, moving, reaching into the soul. He is sponsored by Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and other modern stars from New York. They have hurried to invite him to their shows. In New York, his city, he began singing in the after hours, giving them a decadent futuristic cabaret atmosphere. He has just edited his second and latest album, ‘I am a bird now’. Songs singularly sublime, as if they were from another world”. Tomás Fdo. Flores

Antony comes from the cabaret, his velvety and androgyne aspect have earned him the praises of Dennis Hopper, and the possibility to cooperate with Lou Reed himself, whom he accompanies on his tours as a guest vocalist. Close to jazz and the blues his music is intimate stressing the voice and the piano accompaniment. In February 2005 his album ‘I am a bird now’ was published in Spain.

There is a kind of myth stating, that great artists are created isolated from the world, confined. One has only to get close to any of Anthony’s latest ten songs from his new album of ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS to realize this is a complete fallacy, and to make sure at the same time of Antony’s singularity and originality, the character of androgyne aspect that is also The Johnsons. Had you ever heard a voice like this one, infused with the emotions of the blues, a voice that projects without frills, with a simplicity that reminds us at moments to that of a medieval troubadour, a voice that marvels as they reach high notes as if he were a child? Or those songs which are impossible to categorize in any type of gender or identity, songs that evoke such powerful feelings as nostalgia, love, desire or loss? No. The reason, Antony is exceptional. But by no means is he alone.

I Am A Bird Now is the second album long play off this extraordinary artist from New York. It includes more accompaniment, as well as contributions from contemporary artists (Rufus Wainwrite, Devendra Banhart), and from heroes (Lou Reed, Boy George). His participating is a reflection of the admiration felt for Antony, and his unique place in the contemporary community of artists. “The presence of each one in this recording show their more unique side, having made a contribution created especially for them” says Antony. He has arranged everything meticulously, like a theater director creating a large live picture on stage. “Involving other people makes me feel less alone” adds Antony. “I created the album in an intuitive way, in the way I felt it wanted to be made. And all these people were a real inspiration for the record.”

When he was a child in California, back in 1982, Antony was immediately seduced by the image of Boy George in his debut Country Club Album, Kissing To Be Clever. “George was the first reflection I saw of what I wanted to be in the world”, he explains. “I saw him and thought: ‘Gosh, this is what we have to do when we are this way: we become singers.’” Twenty two years later, Antony was sitting at the piano, recording the disturbing “You Are My Sister” with his icon. “When he was in the studio, I felt that great, large circle connecting with my spirit.”

Another of Antony’s heroes, Lou Reed, performs the introduction of the moving “Fistful of Love,” an absolutely intoxicating experience that mixes the soul of Muscle Shoals with a sense of nearly heroic masochism. In 2003, Reed asked Antony if he wanted to put his voice in the reinterpretation of “Perfect Day” which he was going to include in his album The Raven.

Later, the one who would be the leader of Velvet Underground invited Antony to sing as part of the small group that would accompany him in his tour of Europe and America; he even gave Antony a solo in which he interpreted VU’s classic “Candy Says,” in homage to another of Antony’s inspirations, Candy Darling, Warhol’s superstar. As a matter of fact, the image on the cover of I Am A Bird Now is a photo taken by Peter Hujar in 1974, “Candy Darling On Her Death Bed,” in it Darling appears, laying on her death bed, looking at the camera serenely and with resignation. “Beautiful unto death” says Antony. In the black and white pictures Hujar took of myths in the underground as Darling or Divine soon Antony found another of his stones to play. “There is no sexual deviation in his portraits, he shows a very internal perspective, and that is something in which I am very interested: being intense, no sexual deviation.”

Since his arrival in New York, Antony has inserted himself little by little in the local musical environment, obtaining praises for his performances wherever he goes, and he has even participated in some filming projects, as in the independent film Animal Factory by Steve Buscemi. Now, I Am A Bird Now, is assumed as a great step forward after the namesake debut (reedited this year by Secretly Canadian). “In a certain way, this album is far more personal”, he admits. To get free from some of the archetypal influences, it became a real challenge to reveal more of himself to the audience. “I Am A Bird Now transmits more intimacy. At the moment of producing it, I tried to take it completely – as it was recorded, as it was interpreted – extremely close, and that in this way it seduced even more, nearly as if I were whispering in your ear”.

But all this is only words, believe me, if you have read this but still have not heard the record, you are wasting your time, because the cooperations are not worth anything, Lou Reed is not important, Devendra Benhart is not important, nor is Candy, not the New York underground, nor Antony´s figure, what is really important, always, but on this occasion more than ever, is what you are going to feel every one of those thirty something minutes of the record, the tense and  savage emotion that he has managed to create and sustain, the extreme beauty, sensitive and delicate tone, of his voice and his music.

Like those books that create emotions in you and reconcile you with reading, as when you finish seeing a movie and you cannot get up from your seat, including, or those football games which fans say create fans, the new record of ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS will make you think why the devil did you decide to dedicate yourself to music, a record buggered and condemningly special.

ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS – The Crying Light (LD)
After becoming with “I Am A Bird Now” one of the more important artists of the decade, after obtaining the important Mercury Prize, the prodigal voice of Antony Hegarty and the Johnsons returns. “The Crying Light” is the title of their third album, which they will present directly in our country during four performances. A work inspired in the figure of Kazuo Ohno, founder of the Japanese dance of Butoh, which assumes one more step in a career always guided by the sensibility and the elegance of fundamental artist of our times.

Following a natural process after the design of EP “Another World”, the cover of “The Crying Light” presents a portrait of the famous founder of the Butoh dance, Kazuo Ohno, executed by Naoya Ikegami in Tokyo. Ohno appears in front of a light with a striking gesture and a reclined posture that evoke elements of birth and the grave. Life, death and significance evoked in one image.

According to Antony himself, “The Crying Light” is dedicated to the great dancer Kazuo Ohno. I saw one of his performances in which he projected a circle of light on stage. Within that circle he revealed his dreams and the meditations of his heart. He seemed to dance in front of something mysterious and creative. With every gesture he impersonated the divinity of the child and the mother. He is something like my artistic father.

“The Crying Light” will be published on January 19th, and will be followed by a series of concerts live. The tour, which starts in mid March and finishes in June, will be performed in major theaters and concert halls in the principal cities of Europe.

Top