Epitomising triumph over adversity, the first Our Broken Garden album since 2010 not only embarks on a newly minted sound but digs deep to provide an emotional tour de force that shines as a beacon of resilience and perseverance.
“The album is called Blind because I have been through periods of inner darkness where I didn’t know where or who I was,” Anna Brønsted explains. “I found out I was unable to have children, and it sent me spiralling down an existential crisis, causing me to question all aspects of my life. But the blindness also indicates our inability to recognize the innate beauty that exists within and around us – which I think is a quite common human experience… It’s easy to become blind to the beauty that already exists and fail to appreciate it. The name Our Broken Garden reflects the same issue: If we neglect to see and value the beauty in the garden around us, we may end up destroying it.”
To celebrate her return to recording and touring, we asked Anna to share several albums that have been hugely influential on her music. She writes of her choices:
The songs on my new album, Blind, were written over a longer period of time during which I experienced quite a profound existential crisis. Throughout this period, I discovered that I had a deep need to connect with artistic expressions conveying intimacy, calmness, and emotive warmth. These types of expressions spoke clearly to me during that time and continue to do so.
Stina Nordenstam – And She Closed her Eyes
The first time I listened to Stina Nordenstam was about 15 years ago. Her music had a major impact on me on many levels, especially in the way she uses her voice. Coming from a family of women who often use their voices loudly and almost in a yelling manner – reminiscent of how one might imagine Italian mamas calling the shots 🙂 – it was truly liberating to hear someone express themselves in a whispering tone. Experiencing how quietness can leave a much deeper impact than loudness was a revelation for me. Since then, the quiet expression she embodies has stayed with me, and I have always been drawn to more calm and subtle types of artistic expressions.
Low – Double negative
With Low’s Double Negative from 2018, I had a similar experience of being entranced by the subtle and delicate yet insistently continuous hypnotic pulsing noise. It immersed me in a deep, beautiful and rich darkness that both helped and inspired me to connect with my own artistic expression during a dark time in my life.
Daniel Lanois – Shine & Flesh and Machine
These two albums have been with me for a long time and have definitely influenced my own music-making, particularly in how I relate to and work with sound. Using textures, layers, ambience etc in weaving the sounds together into something dreamy and other worldly. Additionally, there is a certain melancholy in the music that I can very much relate to.
