Shenandoah SOundcheck

anmara Live Concert

“I can be who I am here. I can expand in every direction through the sonic waves.“

By Leif Stawarz, October 9th, 2023

Low lights, dinner crowd chatter, the smell of bar food filling the air – the sensational experience of Clementine surrounded me as Anmara took the stage at the back of the intimate restaurant. A fruit-centered creative cocktail sat in front of me at the bar and I sat back to take the music in as the folksy inspired synth-pop started to fill the air around me.  

Anmara is a self-described ‘ethereal aquarian dream folk’ artist, combining organic synth-pop, ethereal electronica, and dream folk to create a sound akin to Florence + The Machine or Enya. She uses layered instrumentation to create a full sound that echoes around itself, evoking a haunting innovative feeling. Her fantastical music encourages the listener to dive deep and explore the inner and outer landscapes of life, falling in love with them and themselves. She wishes to create a catharsis and a joining of the aspects of people, planet, Spirit and Self.  

During the first song, Anmara seemed nervous, as the bar’s chatter echoed around the restaurant and her microphone seemed to be having some issues transmitting. However, as the show got into full swing and the technical issues were resolved, she gained confidence, and her stage presence grew to accompany the strong growing builds of her songs.  

The songs themselves were powerful, accompanied by her ethereal haunting voice and filling the entire bar with her evocative and expressive lilting vocals. The mix of light piano and driving electronic beats was extremely effective, evoking a soul-stirring and poignant emotion in the crowd. The crowd itself was lackluster at first, but the more songs Anmara got through, the more they responded, until there was an enthusiastic response after each song. This response was likely inspired by the strong stage presence that Anmara brought, telling stories about the writing process, the muse for each song, and her feelings on each song. The lulls between songs, which were not lulls at all as she filled them with her storytelling in equal parts, told every bit as much of a story as the songs themselves. 

Her stage presence was not only present in her stories, though; she was clearly enjoying herself through each and every song. It was not lost on the audience that this is something Anmara loves doing and that she cares about her music quite a bit. During every song, you could see her closing her eyes, getting into the beat, and letting her inhibitions go as the music flew out of her – she sang, she played the piano, and she mixed some of the electronic components of her music directly on stage. She also used what appeared to be a looping machine to loop her own voice on stage and harmonize with herself. This added to the haunting, ethereal effect of her voice and how the wistful notes carried to every corner of the intimate setting – her sound is full and vibrant, the kind of music you can feel in your bones as it reverberates around you.  

While I didn’t know a lot of the songs, the feeling of them was visceral as I experienced them and took them in for the first time. Anmara’s music is spiritual in a non-traditional way, speaking to the listener through each hum and tone – in one of the poems she has posted on her website, she says, “I can be who I am here. I can expand in every direction through the sonic waves. I rise to fill the room and trust the songs will keep traveling out into space forever and ever” and the feelings that her music fulfill evoke that trust.