Anna Johnson unites electroacoustic improvisation with backgrounds in medieval folk traditions and sacred music. Vocal expression is at the gravitational center of her layered sound, a portal to embodied, emotional presence. Based in drone and hypnotic repetition, her work offers a ritualistic experience: one that navigates shifting terrains of tension and heaviness toward moments of intense release, and expands from inner world into communal vulnerability and catharsis. Anna’s performances integrate projection installations of her textural moving images, made from prismatic abstractions of light through magnified miniature cameras. In all creative modalities, she is drawn to the meeting points between personal and mythical, present and ancient.

Anna is currently based in Chicago and tours regularly in North America and Europe. She originates from Minnesota, where she was raised with Celtic and English folk traditions and sacred choral music, and studied both Western classical as well as traditional Eastern European vocal polyphony, in addition to formations in theatre and the visual arts. She holds an MFA from the Performance department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Studio Art from Macalester College. Anna’s debut EP Unknowing was released in 2025 on UK label Industrial Coast and her debut LP Swarm of Tongues releases October 2026 on Somnimage. She was awarded an Outer Ear Session at Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio in spring 2026 for a recording project of new work, and was selected as a finalist for National Sawdust’s 2026 Hildegard Commission, which will culminate in a December 2026 concert featuring a performance of her compositional work by Trinity Choir members and the National Sawdust ensemble. She will be on tour in support of Swarm of Tongues throughout the Great Lakes and East Coast regions of North America in fall 2026.