After a chance meeting at Heathrow Airport in 2019 orchestrated by the incredible Conny Prantera it was a pleasure reconnecting and interviewing the legendary Anna Homler for December’s show on Repeater Radio. Anna’s vocal and performance work work deals with transformations of people, language, and places. We talk about magic, marination, ancient innate memories and dreams that are films that are dreams. We hear some rarely heard recordings from Anna’s archive and a brand new collaboration with Sue Lynch @theoramawards.
Tune in to IN-PROCESS #7 Repeater Radio Thursday 2nd December – 21.00- 21.45 GMT, 1 pm PT time, 4 pm Eastern time
LISTEN: https://repeater-radio.com/shows/in-process/
Archaeology Of The Ear: Listening to Historic Places
The Postcard
Scheduled for broadcast on Resonance 104.4FM
Tues 2nd November 6:30pm / repeated Sun 7th November 10:00am
In this episode Chris Cundy goes to Gloucester Cathedral in the South West of England and meets up with archivist Rebecca Phillips. We follow a story of a postcard that solved a puzzle of how to put a 72ft high window back together after it had been taken apart during the Second World War. Political campaigner and photo montage artist Peter Kennard talks about the social currency of postcards, and singer, improviser and performance artist Anna Homler divulges about her fascination with all things small and postcard sized.
New Album Release April 2019 – Deliquium in C
Format: Vinyl (12″) / digital
Edition: 300
Release: April 11, 2019
Deliquium in C features Steven Warwick, Mark Davies, Alessio Capovilla and the late Steve Moshier.
American performance and improv artist Anna Homler is best known for her early work as “Breadwoman,” originally released in the mid-80ties. Ever since, Homler has played a myriad of live gigs, released a steady stream of music—and was part of numerous collaborations. With Deliquium in C, Präsens Editionen now proudly presents four tracks originating from Homler’s collaborations, on which she sounds gentle and pervasive, maternal and childlike, enigmatic and familiar, playful and severe, squeaking and humming.
For Deliquium in C, Homler worked together with four extraordinary artists moving in the domain of electronic music in its broadest sense: Gang of Ducks’ Alessio Capovilla, Mark Davies alias The Pylon King (who, together with Homler, forms the duo Voices of Kwahn), PAN-affiliate Steven Warwick aka Heatsick, and the late Steve Moshier, who produced the original Breadwoman tape. These collaborations emphasize once more just how versatile Homler is—as a singer and as a master of her toys.
The LP comes with linear notes (interviews with Anna Homler and her collaborators) on the inner sleeve. Graphic design by Dorothee Dähler.
Delirium in C is available as a vinyl LP and digitally, but also as a bundle including the LP and a fanzine published by Gang Of Ducks featuring photos of Homler’s toys and instruments.
BUY
Legendary performance artist and musician Anna Homler, best known for her early work as Breadwoman, will release a new collaborative EP on Präsens Editionen.
Deliquium in C features PAN affiliate Steven Warwick (aka Heatsick), ambient dub techno producer Mark Davies (aka The Pylon King) who, together with Homler, makes up the experimental duo Voices of Kwahn, Gang Of Ducks’ Alessio Capovilla and the late Steve Moshier, who produced the original Breadwoman tape.
Read Article – https://www.factmag.com
https://www.residentadvisor.net/tracks/948213
https://www.facebook.com/praesenseditionen/posts/2572754199464040
https://www.facebook.com/praesenseditionen/posts/2574122632660530
https://www.instagram.com/p/BurOwjhlizZ
New Release on First Terrace Split Series
FTS003 – First Terrace Records
Featuring a different artist on each side.
On the ‘line’ side of FTS003 we hear the meeting of three veteran improvisors – Anna Homler (Breadwoman/Pharmacia Poetica), Adrian Northover (Remote Viewers) and Dave Tucker (The Fall). Born from the fertile creative friction of the London Improvisers Orchestra, they incantate together to deliver a clutch of winding, curious, mesmeric compositions.
On the ‘circle’ side we present a recording from Pierre Bastien – an artist of startling singularity and endless, joyful creativity. Recorded at Arts Santa Mònica in Barcelona with Catalonian group Cabo San Roque, Pierre takes the helm of their monumental mechanical sound sculpture – the Orquestra Mecànica de la França Xica – and guides the vast array of cogs and pistons through three movements. The orchestra was made up of thirty or forty machines, all linked to Pierre’s casio keyboard.
Words On New Music audio podcast interviews Anna Homler
Crossing time, the voice and work of Anna Homler
Listen at http://soundin.org
Transportive and mesmerizing!
Come along with Jim and Paul’s November
Words On New Music audio podcast and listen
to the music of performance artist, singer,
sound maker and creator of Breadwoman,
Anna Homler!
Music featuring Anna Homler in this episode:
Plutonian Lullaby by Anna Homler & Sylvia Hallett
Ee Ché by Anna Homler & Steve Moshier
Yesh Té by Anna Homler & Steve Moshier
Tinselgruntz by Steve Beresford, Anna Homler and Richard Sanderson. From the Berlin Toy Bizaar at the Berlin Jazz Festival.
Probate Codes by the London Improvisatory Orchestra featuring Anna Homler and other voices, Adam Bohman and Sue Lynch. Conducted by Steve Beresford. Live voice processing Andrian Northover. Recording by Jeff Ardone.
August 3 — Interview with Anna & Jorge Martin on Celsius Drop Radio
Thursday, August 3, 2017
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
More Information and to Listen Live
click the blue arrow at the top of the screen
Lucky Peach: The Rise of Breadwoman
In 1982, performance artist Anna Homler put a loaf of bread on her face and became Breadwoman, a character who sang and chanted in an amalgamation of languages and sounds.
AH_LuckyPeachJuno Plus: LIVE SHOW REVIEW – Breadwoman at CTM Festival
American Anna Homler’s Breadwoman character
(a woman of elderly appearance with a face full of dough played by Natsuko Kono)
was revived for CTM 2016.
AH_JunoPlus2BREADWOMAN at Santa Monica Library

BREADWOMAN
Variations and Improvisations
Anna Homler, voice
Jorge Martin, electronic modules
with Maya Gingery as Breadwoman
Including music composed by the late Steve Moshier
from Breadwoman and Other Tales. (RVNG)
June 8, 2017
7:30-8:30 PM
Free admission
Santa Monica Library
601 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 9040,
310.458.8600
Pitchfork Track Review: “Ee Chê”
This cosmic speaking-in-tongues channeled the voice of a character called Breadwoman.
AH_Pitchfork2Quench Review: Breadwoman
The major talking point of the Saturday schedule was that of Breadwoman, a product of cult 80s release Breadwoman & Other Tales given a physical performance by Anna Homler, Steve Moshier and the Breadwoman herself.
AH_QuenchReview: Pitchfork
In 1985, Los Angeles performance artist Anna Holmer recorded a series of shamanistic dream-songs with Southern California composer Steve Moshier, who accompanied Homler’s chants with watery synthesizers and rubbery electronic pulses.
ah_pitchforkInterview: Juno Plus – Breadwoman
Speaking in Tongues
To celebrate the arrival of her reissued album
on RVNG, Anna Homler details the three
decade-old story behind Breadwoman in this
delightful interview with Brendan Arnott.
ah_junoplus
Review: Inverted Audio
Breadwoman and Other Tales is a potent document of a time an artist could shroud themselves in mystery, creating an entire mythology, it was close to impossible for anyone outside of their immediate ‘scene’ to penetrate.
ah_invertedaudiohhv.de Album Review: BREADWOMAN & OTHER TALES
ALBUM REVIEW: RVNG INTL. COMPILES DIY MYSTICISM FROM 80S LA ON BREADWOMAN & OTHER TALES
The Attic: A Story of Bread
Test Pressing Review
Pitchfork and Northside Festival
http://northsidefestival.com/2016/04/lotic-rabit-priests-breadwoman-and-more-announced-for-2016-pitchfork-showcase/
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Saint Vitus
1120 Manhattan Ave., BK
Breadwoman at The Click Festival
Elsinore, Denmark
May 21, 2016
Anna Homler US
Steven Warwick UK
Natsuko Kono JP
LOCATION: Helsingor
TIME: 21:45-22:45
A project borne of myth, mystery and shadow play in eighties Los Angeles gets gloriously animated for the 2016 stage: meet Breadwoman, the character that embodies US vocalist and performance artist Anna Homler’s practice of divining speech, lyrical fragments, and melody for music, with the fluid synthetic excursions of Steven Warwick aka Heatsick as her modern-day accomplice.
Originally recorded in 1985, The album Breadwoman & Other Tales found Homler in musical dialogue with electro-acoustic composer and LA avant-garde contemporary Steve Moshier, on a set of otherworldly spirituals delivered in an invented language by Homler over Moshier’s rich and strange production. To mark the reissue of this unheralded landmark album by the RVNG label in February 2016, Homler will give rise to Breadwoman again for a series of very special mixed-media performances, with Warwick rechanneling Moshier’s material for the live realm.
It’s 1982, and Anna is driving an ocean blue classic Cadillac to meet renowned poet and playwright Deena Metzger in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles. Passing a non-descript desert patch where tall wheat and mustard flowers grow, Anna opens her mouth and sings in a salient stream of rhythmic, melodic sound. Breadwoman is born, but not by immaculate conception. For Homler, performance art had become “a form big enough to contain everything happening”, and as this performative freedom fed into the enchanted vocalese, the character of Breadwoman emerged.
Frieze Review
FACT Interview: BREADWOMAN RISES – THE MAKING OF A MODERN MYSTIC
Expose Review
In the early 80s, performance artist Anna Homler crossed paths with avant-garde composer Steve Moshier, and this collaboration was the result. Moshier took recordings of Homler’s wordless vocalizations and conceived other parts to accompany them, sometimes percussive, sometimes droning and ambient, always fitting with whatever she did. Some of the pieces, like “Ee Chê,”feature rhythmic chanting of invented syllables that sound as if they might be words in some unknown language; others, such as
the lengthy “Sirens,” consist of swoops, groans, crackles and other “non-musical” vocal noises. Moshier pairs themsympathetically, with “Ee Chê” presenting processed percussion with a relentless beat, and “Sirens” consisting of long synthesizer tones fading in and out. Each of the tracks has its own identity and sound. When it comes to abstract vocalizing (or whatever term you choose to cover Homler’s type of singing), there is a great danger of creating sounds that are very harsh and likely to repel many listeners (I’m thinking of performers like Diamanda Galás), and while Breadwoman is not for everyone, Homler never
comes off as abrasive. This music represents a middle point in performance art music – not as poppish as most of Laurie Anderson’s work (and certainly more abstract, given the lack of words), not as difficult as Galás. As such, it works admirably as its own thing, a creative vision of an alternative way of creating music outside the conventions of typical songcraft. And it’s also a rather enjoyable listen.
Sequenza 21/ Review
Breadwoman & Other Tales is a recently-released CD on the RVNG Intl label featuring the music of Anna Homler and Steve Moshier. Breadwoman is the persona adopted by vocalist Homler and the liner notes describe her as follows: “Breadwoman is a guide, a storyteller and an observer of human events. She communicates with gestures and songs in a language that is both mysterious and familiar. Breadwoman is so very old that she stands outside of time. Her territory is that of the interior, where there are no distinctions and all things are whole.”
Although the CD was released in February 2016, the music dates from the early 1980s Los Angeles new music scene. Anna Homler was deeply involved in performance art and recorded the vocalizing that ultimately became Breadwoman as she drove around town in her car. At the same time Steve Moshier was a percussionist with the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra, often performing at the same experimental dance and theater venues where Homler appeared. Their collaboration was natural, with Anna supplying her cassette recordings to Moshier, who created the electronic accompaniment. The process was iterative – the vocals evolving as each version of the electronics was realized. This was a complex and time-consuming undertaking given the technology of the time – Moshier was working with a Kurzweil K2000 synthesizer, a Prophet analog synth, a Sequential Circuits sequencer along with 2-track and 4-track tapes.
The resulting tracks on Breadwoman & Other Tales are remarkable for their convincing insight and invocation of primal music. None of the vocal lines are heard in English but are rather spoken in some unknown ancient tongue, perhaps Eastern European in origin. The melody lines are clear and precisely sung by Ms. Homler, and the strange accents and words persuasively evoke life in a small village thousands of years ago. Moshier’s electronic accompaniment is completely contemporary and, by comparison, futuristic. This makes for an engaging balance – the timeworn words and melodies offset by analog electronic tones, adding to the mysterious and mystical feel in all these pieces.
Even without comprehensible words or context, the songs are recognizable for the human emotions they express. Anna Homler studied anthropology as an undergraduate at UCLA and the daily ebb and flow of primal society fills each of these pieces. Gu She’ Na’ Di, track 3, could be a folk melody about new love – full of optimism and hope – with a clarinet line that compliments the singing perfectly. Giyah on track 4, however, is solemn and deliberate, sung mostly in the lower registers, as if some sad event in village history is being recounted. Sirens, on track 6, is full of deep electronic tones and a menacing, predatory growl that invites fear and panic – reminding us that primal existence is precarious, full of uncertainty and danger.
Oo Nu Dah, track 2, has a mysterious pulsating in the electronics with a slightly alien feel as a faint voice comes to the top of the texture, chant-like, in a prayer of supplication. The melody becomes layered – perhaps a proto-canon – and it is as if we are witness to the origins of devotional worship. Celestial Ash, the final track, takes this to the collective level in a cloud of quiet whispers as a distant electronic humming sound emerges, building in volume – as if the sun is rising on the assembled. Voices are heard in short phrases and the electronics evoke a dignified alien presence. A melodic recap of the opening is sung – the language sounds vaguely Celtic – and we could be present at the annual gathering at Stonehenge 4000 years ago.
Breadwoman & Other Tales takes us back to a time when life was highly spiritual and lived in the moment. This CD reminds us that our brains are hardwired for the primal life, and we still respond to its ancient rhythms and sensibility.
Link to Review
http://www.sequenza21.com/cdreviews/2016/04/breadwoman-and-other-tales/
Review: Exclaim
ALBUM REVIEW: ANNA HOMLER / STEVE MOSHIER – BREADWOMAN &
OTHER TALES by Will Pearson
Brooklyn label RVNG continues its program of idiosyncratic and avant-garde releases with this reissue of
Anna Homler and Steve Moshier’s 1985 foray into imagined myth, invented language and ambient
electronica. Even by RVNG’s standards, Breadwoman and Other Tales is weird. This music sounds not just
like it’s been unearthed from another time, but from outside of time altogether.
Homler (a performance artist) met Moshier (an avant-garde musician) in L.A.’s underground gallery culture in the early ’80s. She had already developed the character of Breadwoman, “a woman so old she’s turned to bread,” and a form of extra-linguistic incantation and chant that she’d been recording onto cassette. She gave the cassettes to Moshier, who composed ambient soundscapes to accompany them using 2-track and 4-track tape recorders, synths, effects and a sequencer.
The result is a record that feels meaningful despite its nonsensical language, which doesn’t sound dated in the least, neither sonically nor stylistically. “Oo Nu Dah” is an early highlight, and finds Moshier looping and multi-tracking Homler’s voice into Reich-like echoes that produce unnerving harmonies. “Sirens” is a terrifying excursion into the primordial, with Homler delivering inhuman squeaks, squeals and groans that evoke both birth and death.
If you’re looking for a record to give your bohemian wine tasting an air of inscrutable sophistication, this record will do the trick, but it’s better than that; it demands and deserves a quiet concentration in order for its transcendental ambitions to flourish. (RVNG Intl.)
Rating: 8/10
Review: Boomkat
ALBUM REVIEW: ANNA HOMLER / STEVE MOSHIER –
BREADWOMAN & OTHER TALES
Spellbinding transmission from the esoteric melting pot of early ’80s L.A.; an expanded reissue of the eponymous debut release by Anna Homler & Steve Moshier’s sound art duo, Breadwoman, including two
bonus, previously unreleased pieces.
First kneaded in 1982 by performance artist Anna Homler, Breadwoman arose as a “being who exists outside of time”, intersecting various strands of L.A.’s art scene – gallery culture, DIY avant-garde, meaning-making mysticism – with a combination of gauzy electronics, glossolalic vocalese, and a costume made out of bread.
You can certainly colour us beguiled at Breadwoman & Other Tales, presenting the original tape’s alien song cycle – from the primordial shuffle and curiously Japanese-sounding vocalese of Ee Chê, thru the floating prisms of Oo Nu Dah, to the Rashad Becker-esque electronics of Giyah and kosmiche crème of Yesh’ Te – whilst the two bonus tracks angle far, far-out into stunning cinematic abstraction sounding like Helge Sten scoring a Lynch flick with the 12 minute Sirens, whereas Celestial Ash scries a precedent to everything from Enya and Julia Holter to Anna Caragnano & Donato Dozzy’s Sintetizzatrice.
Can easily predict this becoming an end-of-year favourite. Recommended!
Review: Avoiding Silence
ALBUM REVIEW: ANNA HOMLER / STEVE MOSHIER –
BREADWOMAN & OTHER TALES
In the early 80s, performance artist Anna Homler crossed paths with avant-garde composer Steve Moshier,
and this collaboration was the result.
Moshier took recordings of Homler’s wordless vocalizations and conceived other parts to accompany them, sometimes percussive, sometimes droning and ambient, always fitting with whatever she did. Some of the pieces, like “Ee Chê,” feature rhythmic chanting of invented syllables that sound as if they might be words in some unknown language; others, such as the lengthy “Sirens,” consist of swoops, groans, crackles and other “non-musical” vocal noises. Moshier pairs them sympathetically, with “Ee Chê” presenting processed percussion with a relentless beat, and “Sirens” consisting of long synthesizer tones fading in and out.
Each of the tracks has its own identity and sound. When it comes to abstract vocalizing (or whatever term you choose to cover Homler’s type of singing), there is a great danger of creating sounds that are very harsh and likely to repel many listeners, and while Breadwoman is not for everyone, Homler never comes off as abrasive.
This music represents a middle point in performance art music – not as poppish as most of Laurie Anderson’s work (and certainly more abstract, given the lack of words), not as difficult as Galás. As such, it works admirably as its own thing, a creative vision of an alternative way of creating music outside the conventions of typical songcraft. And it’s also a rather enjoyable listen.
Review: Aquarium Drunkard — Breadwoman
March 15, 2016
The genesis of Breadwoman stretches back to the early ’80s, when performance artist Anna Homler found herself singing while driving through Topanga Canyon, chanting out in a strange, rhythmic cadence.
Homler’s melodies weren’t from any language she recognized, but felt like more than just absentminded moans or nonsensical babbles to her. “I still remember the moment,” Homler says via the telephone. “It was a
language I didn’t know but it was musical and melodic.”
Link to Aquarium Drunkard Article online
AH_AquariumDrunkardJAB February 28
7:30 PM
Highways Performance Space
1651 18th St, Santa Monica, California 90404
JAB is vocalist/performance artist Anna Homler’s new ensemble with bassist Jeff Schwartz and soundscape percussionist Breeze Smith. Homler sings in an invented language and uses toys and other objects to make sound, while Smith plays his own wood and metal sculptures, as well as conventional instruments, and uses electronics to capture and transform his and the others’ sounds. More Info.
El Chamberlin Review and Interview
Revealing The Hidden Nature of Everyday Things.
ElChamberlin_Feb2016_AnnaHomler-1
*Scroll over bottom part to access all 6 pages.