CECILIE ANNA
- Songwriter and artist from Stord, Norway.
Released her debut album ‘Going North’ in 2016 together with her band formally known as FAMILIEFORETAKET (The Family Concern).
CECILIE ANNA’s first solo album, ‘I'm Here’ (2016) received glowing reviews in Norwegian national press.
WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!
Wow, what a dream come true! To walk the red carpet together with Endre Olsen on our way to watch ‘Above the Trees’ featuring our two versions of my song ‘Follow You’.
The movie is a beautiful mosaic of human relations. An ode to poetry, but also with a hint of thriller. A rare creation where ‘Follow You’ is vowen in to perfection. Wow. This is such a big dream come true.
Cecilie's voice is authentic and beautiful. She sings with nothing held back, and with such poetic nuance.
She contributed two versions of FOLLOW YOU to our film. Coral plays the stunning original from NEW BIRD after Gabriel’s proposal, and the gorgeous, alternate version from HOMMAGE COUNTY is the lone song in our final credits.
- Director Gary Lundgren
About the film:
When a good man GABRIEL (Julian Remulla) is assaulted in the park one night and left in a serious coma, his best friend and local boxer GUSTAVO ROJAS (Luis Rodriguez) is charged with the crime. This non-linear story plays out in five chapters as it follows a mosaic of people linked to the tragedy, while the criminal trial unfolds in Jackson County.
Directed by Gary Lundgren. Starring Danielle Kelly, Julian Remulla, Luis Rodriguez, Danforth Comins, Barret O'Brien. Filmed on location in the Rogue Valley.
Premieres May 10.2024
This is Cecilie Anna’s song ‘Thousands of Hearts’ supporting the people of Gaza. Normal people just trying to live their lives. Stop the war!
‘Hommage County’ is finally out and has received wonderful reviews in Norwegian press.
This is not background music; it requires that the listener spends time, time to let the melodies crawl in. It’s intimate, raw and beautiful, with everything wrapped around little stories. It’s an album which deserves your time and attention.
Excert from Per Henrik Arnesen’s review published at gaffa.no
Cover photo by Magne Langåker
CECILIE ANNA recently received outstanding reviews for both her solo albums at the NY based blog “Dusty Wrights Culture Catch”! A brilliant blog on the mission to “filter and share compelling content with cultural enthusiasts in all areas of the Arts -- music, literature, film, art, and theater.” Hurrah!
Read Night Falls and Lullabies (New Bird)
A Considering of Pearls (I’m Here)
Thank you, Rob and Dusty!
It’s truly a pleasure visiting Sigve Håland and T-Time Vinyl Plant again, picking up the second edition of New Bird on LP. First edition is now sold out with the exception of a few copies in record shops in Bergen.
To order New Bird on LP and other records on CD, please visit: https://cecilieanna.bandcamp.com/
First edition of the “New Bird” LP, limited to 100 copies, is nearly sold out. Only a few records left in Apollon Platebar (Record shop in Bergen, Norway). Second edition will be produced with a sligth alteration and is now in process limited to 200 copies.
New Bird is out! LP is in the works, will be ready early 2020.
Listening to these songs does you good. There is a real sense of caring that permeates everything, without it becoming simplistic or corny. Care for those who are close, for the joy of creating, and a sense of wonder at life itself, in all its glory, and a real sense of gratitude.
Øyvind Vågnes in Norwegian National Newspaper Dag og Tid
Read full reviews here: https://cecilieanna.com/reviews
CECILIE ANNA live at Dulcimer Bar, Chorlton Manchester, September 28. 2019 Photo: Paal Audestad
How fabulous to play in Manchester! Thank you Robert Cochrane for inviting us, for showing us your city and sharing laughs. Thank you Paal Audestad for joining us and taking these amazing photos. We really enjoyed to get to know you! Dear Manchester: Thank you for welcoming us through the brightness of your rain, between your tall buildings and rivers of people in your streets. Thank you Dulcimer Bar for that wonderful evening of music and love, for letting us hear the roars from your hearts.
CECILIE ANNA in Manchester together with poet Robert Cochrane, boyfriend and co-singer Vidar Vedå, producer Gisle Østrem and photographer Paal Audestad. Goodtimes!
CECILIE ANNA, Gisle Østrem and Vidar Vedå.
Photo: Paal Audestad
CECILIE ANNA and Robert Cochrane
Photo: Paal Audestad
Dear friends, it’s lovely to announce the release of CECILIE ANNA’s fourth single, ‘Winter Turns to Spring’! It will be out this Friday, September 28. and will be the last single release before her new album ‘New Bird’ comes out Oct.25. Winter Turns to Spring is for CECILIE ANNA’s father, Hjalmar. Her album ‘I’m Here’ (2017) was also dedicated to him. The cover photo for the single has a very special story. (Read below.)
Photo by Odd Atslev
Odd Atslev took a lot of photos in the 1930s, and about 10 years ago CECILIE ANNA came across one of his photo albums in an antiques shop in Oslo. Most of the photos were of family members and friends on excursions and get-togethers. However, it was clear that he had been a very talented photographer with a good eye. Many years later CECILIE ANNA managed to get in touch with one of Atslev’s nieces. She was able to reveal that her uncle had been a photographer for British Intelligence during the Second World War and was arrested in 1942. After having spent some time at Grini Prison he was sent on to prison camps in Germany, and returned home after the war. The photo album was sent to Atslev’s decendants in the U.S., and CECILIE ANNAa is very pleased that she was able to use one of the photos as the cover image for the single ‘Winter Turns To Spring’, a song she wrote for her father. It’s all about love that exists across time and space. CECILIE ANNA feels an artistic and friend-like affinity towards Odd, which also transcends time and space. She hopes and believes that he would have liked the fact that one of his photographs was used as an image for a cover. Atslev died in 1998. Those that knew him describe him as kind, artistic and an all-round good person. (Thanks to Annika Harzhofer for help with translation of this text.)
So happy to announce two upcoming gigs! Welcome everyone.
“New Bird” is the third single, and the title track from CECILIE ANNA’s new upcoming album due October 25. Dedicated to Cecilie Anna’s friend Andy.
Radio premieres today at Stjernepose 09:00, a Norwegian popular radio show.
Cover photo by Paal Audestad, one of Norway’s finest.
CECILIE ANNA's new single and tribute to Will Oldham "Bonnie" is out! Cover photo by Paal Audestad. Celebration this evening at Bømlo Ultrafestival, a runners festival where people love to run very, very far. Cecilie Anna will not be running, but she will be smiling throughout her concert besides her lovely co-pilots Vidar Vedå and Ingjerd Kannelønning Kolstad.
CECILIE ANNA has received wonderful words for her album.
“CECILIE ANNA is a remarkably good composer, lyricist and vocalist. The album is low-key and quiet, but clear and sharp in its execution. She wrote the instrumental track Den Grone Dagen at the age of ten, and 'Baby Doll' at 17. An incredible talent from early age.”
-Øyvind Vågnes, Dag og Tid
Read full review here.
“Her music is like a light, guiding us through the darkness and warming our hearts.“
-Petter Lønningen, BT
Read full review here.
“A rare gem, the album's eleven tracks are well-written, with a sense of deeply reflective poetry. Musically it's both melancholy, dark, fragile and beautiful.”
-Per Henrik Arnesen, Gaffa.no
Read full review here.
"I'm Here" is a record dedicated to CECILIE ANNA father, Hjalmar. He played the trumpet and simply loved music. It rains a lot where CECILIE ANNA lives, so she wanted to include rain as well as horns on the record. She chooses to refer to the album as a slow tempo record. In same way that an author doesn’t necessarily place the chapters she believes might be most popular at the beginning of a book, she hasn’t tried to predict which songs might be most popular or become hits. Her wish is for people to relax for a small hour and listen to the record in peace and quiet.
The instrumental track "Den Grøne Dagen" was the first song CECILIE ANNA ever wrote, when she was ten years old. It has followed her throughout her life, and she’s so very happy it could be included on this record. She wrote "Baby Doll" when she was seventeen. The rest of the songs have been written over many years, and the last track on the album, «The Smallest Bird», was written in the autumn of 2016, as a tribute to Leonard Cohen after he passed away.
Contributing musicians are Rebecca Almås on alto horn, Åge Østrem on cornet and flugelhorn and Torstein Overweg on euphonium, with Vidar Vedå on backing vocals. The recording and mixing were managed by Gisle Østrem at Sir Sound Studios, Stord. Mastering took place at Abbey Road Studios, London.
Photo by Trond Leirvik Onarheim
