Welsh songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer The Anchoress (aka Catherine Anne Davies) has found a room of her own, creating a one-woman sonic vision on her Welsh Music Prize nominated second album, The Art of Losing.
This is a collection of songs that Caitlin Moran hailed as “the inadvertent, beautiful, and truthful soundtrack to this moment” and Elton John called “one of my favourite records of the year”. The Sunday Times ended 2021 by naming it as one of their seven “must-hear” Albums of 2021, along with Record Collector, Line of Best Fit, the Mail on Sunday and Prog Magazine, who all crowned the album as one of their best albums of 2021.
Produced and written by Davies herself, The Art of Losing was created in the aftermath of several years of huge personal loss, after the untimely death of her father, undergoing treatment for cervical cancer, and navigating multiple counts of baby loss. But the resulting record tackles grief with a defiant optimism, firmly concerned with how to find purpose in the midst of loss: “Was there some purpose to losing my mind?”, she asks on the title track: “What did you learn when life was unkind?”
The album certainly follows fellow Welshman and poet Dylan Thomas’ instruction to “rage against the dying of the light” – and there is nothing sonically “gentle” about its enquiry. The album features the BBC 6 Music playlisted singles ‘Show Your Face’ & ‘The Art of Losing’, alongside guest performances from James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers) and Sterling Campbell (David Bowie, Duran Duran).
Praise for The Art of Losing:
“Skewers the messy, chaotic nature of grief. Intense…” ☆☆☆☆ NME
“Davies has given a powerful, challenging voice to her grief.” ☆☆☆☆ THE OBSERVER
“A brave and inspirational album.” SUNDAY TIMES – ALBUM OF THE WEEK
“Cuts latter-day Bowie art rock shapes.” ☆☆☆☆ MOJO
“Intense, insistent and inspired. Existential torment has never sounded so alluring…” ☆☆☆☆☆ PROG
“Shining alt-pop from an artisan of darkness. A bold voice in the darkest shadows.” ☆☆☆☆ RECORD COLLECTOR
“Quotable, immersive, moving, imaginative, delicate, and dramatic. A stellar achievement.” THE QUIETUS
“A defiant and glorious second album…. An intensely compelling record.”☆☆☆☆ CLASSIC POP
“A lyrically bold, musically lush art rock investigation of grief… like Chrissie Hynde and David Bowie on a synth-pop death trip.” THE TELEGRAPH – ALBUM OF THE WEEK
“Swaggering synthpop… Infectiously buoyant.” ☆☆☆☆ UNCUT
“Determined and rapturous. 9/10.” THE LINE OF BEST FIT – ALBUM OF THE WEEK
“Serious, accomplished art rock.” ☆☆☆☆ THE TIMES
“Grief and loss are its themes, rendered in handsomely wrought tones of orchestral rock.” ☆☆☆☆ FT
“Davies’ voice, like Annie Lennox’s, mixes vulnerability with verve. She gets to the heart of grief, showing it’s not so much five stages as six emotions at the same time. And she turns it into something life-enhancing.” ☆☆☆☆ MAIL ON SUNDAY – ALBUM OF THE WEEK
“The Welsh Renaissance woman harnesses grief, fury, and love of storytelling on a compelling sequel.” 8/10 CLASH
Book a table for pre-concert dining
Acapela Studio provides pre-concert dining between 6.00pm and 7.30pm from our pizza oven. To view the current menu visit here.
Please purchase your concert tickets first before booking a table. We will not accept any table bookings that do not have a corresponding ticket purchase.
Then return to the event page to book your table, by selecting the date of your event, number of diners and time you require table. The times shown are the only vacancies left. Please complete your email and phone number as this is required to ensure your table is allocated. You will receive confirmation of your booking by email and text.
If on the date you have chosen no tables are available - no times will be shown and the booking system will revert you back to todays date - PLEASE ENSURE YOU BOOK THE CORRECT DATE!
PLEASE NOTE THE VENUE RELIES ON THE INCOME FROM DINING TO ENSURE WE CAN BOOK ALL THE GREAT ACTS PERFORMING.
Income from the provision of pizzas is very important to the venue and if you have booked a table it is a requirement that all people sat at tables order food - a salad alternative is available to pizzas. Please do ensure that all individuals will be ordering on your table - if this is not the case please cancel your table so others who are looking to dine can do so. Our apologies to raise this but recently we have had many tables (some very large) where less than 50% of those sat at tables have ordered food. Financially this is a real problem to the sustainability of the venue.
- All seating at tables must purchase a pizza - so please do not book a table if everyone is not eating.
- Please ensure that you arrive 10 minutes before the time slot allocated to order your pizzas prior to your booking time.
- Tables not seated within 15 minutes of the allocated time may be lost and allocated to other audience members wishing to order pizzas.
- If you wish to book a table for 6 or more please email info@acapela.co.uk
Please note that all of our pizzas are made fresh to order. It may take up to 45 minutes to be served during busy periods.
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO BOOK A TABLE YOU CAN STILL ORDER PIZZAS ON THE NIGHT (USUALLY ON BUSY NIGHTS NO LATER THAN 7.15PM) AND WE WILL SERVE THEM TO YOU WHEREVER YOU ARE SAT IN THE VENUE - IN A PIZZA BOX.