When Annabelle Chvostek joined the Wailin' Jennys in 2004, the rest of the world found out what a grassroots network of Canadian roots fans had known for several years: that Chvostek is a formidable songwriter, a versatile multi-instrumentalist, and a fearless and innovative artist whose beguiling left-of-centre compositions straddle the divide between mainstream roots and acoustic indie pop.
ARTIST
ANNABELLE CHVOSTEK
ANNABELLE CHVOSTEK
Biography
Born and raised in a musical family in Toronto, Chvostek made her professional debut with the Canadian Opera Company at the age of 7, and appeared in La Boheme at 8. She has been performing ever since. In the mid 90s, Chvostek moved to Montreal to, as she puts it, "live like a bohemian." There, she earned a degree in interdisciplinary fine arts at Concordia, composed for dance and film, played in bands that ranged from old-time to electronica, and served as a percussionist for dance classes. She also traveled in India and Japan and did work as a journalist, camera girl and multimedia tech all the while writing songs and performing them on the Montreal-Ontario-New York circuit.
She released her solo debut 1am to 5am in 1997 and followed it up with Full Stop in 2000 and Water in 2003. In 2004, she released the EP, Burned My Ass, which contained the first version of the soon-to-be Jennys' favourite "Devil's Paintbrush Road." It topped the campus radio folk charts. By the time she joined the Jennys, Chvostek was touring North America regularly, frequently sharing bills with acts like Po\\\'Girl, Rae Spoon and Barlywick.
In addition to pursuing her solo music career, Annabelle continues to work in a variety of other disciplines. Immediately prior to joining the Jennys, she toured to Brussells, Rotterdam, Hamberg, Berlin and Vienna with her new media performance piece "The Automated Prayer Machine," a collaboration with Anna Friz. Most recently, she composed music for the Drastic Action Dance company piece Line of Descent, which debuted in New York on March 13th 2008, and is now in production scoring a feature length experimental documentary by Tamara Vukov.
Annabelle in Colour
A powerful solo artist gorgeous lead vocal and deft guitar playing her new recording is a fantastic piece of work. Despite being acoustic, it rocks fiercely.
Anna Maria Stjärnell, Collected Sounds, Sweden
"Just gorgeous so musical oh my."
Jane Siberry/Issa, Canada
A contemporary urban folk alchemist a persuasive vocalist and multiinstrumentalist, with a natural style unpolluted by attention seeking postures.
Musicworkz, UK
These are spiritual depths paired with beautiful vocals.
Alooga Media, Germany
She released her solo debut 1am to 5am in 1997 and followed it up with Full Stop in 2000 and Water in 2003. In 2004, she released the EP, Burned My Ass, which contained the first version of the soon-to-be Jennys' favourite "Devil's Paintbrush Road." It topped the campus radio folk charts. By the time she joined the Jennys, Chvostek was touring North America regularly, frequently sharing bills with acts like Po\\\'Girl, Rae Spoon and Barlywick.
In addition to pursuing her solo music career, Annabelle continues to work in a variety of other disciplines. Immediately prior to joining the Jennys, she toured to Brussells, Rotterdam, Hamberg, Berlin and Vienna with her new media performance piece "The Automated Prayer Machine," a collaboration with Anna Friz. Most recently, she composed music for the Drastic Action Dance company piece Line of Descent, which debuted in New York on March 13th 2008, and is now in production scoring a feature length experimental documentary by Tamara Vukov.
Annabelle in Colour
A powerful solo artist gorgeous lead vocal and deft guitar playing her new recording is a fantastic piece of work. Despite being acoustic, it rocks fiercely.
Anna Maria Stjärnell, Collected Sounds, Sweden
"Just gorgeous so musical oh my."
Jane Siberry/Issa, Canada
A contemporary urban folk alchemist a persuasive vocalist and multiinstrumentalist, with a natural style unpolluted by attention seeking postures.
Musicworkz, UK
These are spiritual depths paired with beautiful vocals.
Alooga Media, Germany
 Resilience FOLK DECEMBER 1969 |  | | | |
