Anna Johnson is a musician and visual artist. Her sound unites electroacoustic improvisation with backgrounds in medieval folk traditions and sacred music. Based in drone and hypnotic repetition, she is invested in vocal expression as a portal to somatic and emotional presence. Anna’s performances often integrate projection installations of her textural film work. Her approach to live art is ritualistic; she seeks embodied and communal experiences of vulnerability and spiritual catharsis. She is drawn to the meeting points between personal and mythical, present and ancient.

Anna is based in Chicago and tours regularly in North America and Europe. She originates from Minnesota, where she was raised with Celtic and Anglo folk traditions and sacred choral music, and studied both Western classical as well as traditional Eastern European polyphony. 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 is anticipated in fall 2026 on Somnimage. She was awarded an Outer Ear Session at Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio in spring 2026, and selected as a finalist for National Sawdust’s 2026 Hildegard Commission, which will culminate in a December 2026 concert featuring a performance by Trinity Choir and National Sawdust ensemble of her compositional work.