Renowned musician and composer Annie Hart is thrilled to announce her fourth full-length studio album, The Weight of A Wave, set to release on August 4th on Uninhabitable Mansions. Her minimal pop songs explore the fringes of new wave, pop, and ambient music; and have been called “sumptuous synth-pop’ by Vogue.
Hart’s illustrious musical career took flight in 2003 when she entered electropop scene as a member of Au Revoir Simone. Their synthesizer-driven melodies gained prominence in movies, commercials, and hit TV shows, including Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty. In a significant highlight, Hart not only contributed music to David Lynch’s 2017 revival of Twin Peaks, but she also graced the screen, performing onstage in episodes four and nine.
In 2017, Hart embarked on a solo endeavor with the release of her debut album, Impossible Accomplice, whose tracks appeared in popular TV shows such as Marvel’s The Runaways, Trinkets, The Fosters, and the Naomi Watts-led Gypsy. Venturing further into her artistic evolution, Hart stepped into the film industry in 2020, composing scores for several feature films, including IFC’s Olympic Dreams and Universal’s Banana Split. As a solo artist, she has shared the stage with renowned artists like Fred Armisen, Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip, Delicate Steve, Saint Etienne, Voxtrot, and Marissa Nadler.
The Weight of A Wave showcases Hart’s undeniable songwriting prowess. Characterized by an eclectic mix of poppy basement rock to energetic krautrock-inspired jams, each song was crafted in what Hart and her friends affectionately call “Song Challenges,” producing a minimum of three songs per session. This technique grants the album an organic and vibrant quality that successfully captures a sense of spontaneity often missed in studio recordings. The lead single from the album, “Stop Staring at You,” epitomizes this unique musical expression. Directed by award-winning Ben Kasulke (United Talent Agency) and produced and edited by Brendan Walsh (PBS American Masters Janis: Little Girl Blue, There Will Be Blood and The Master), the music video encapsulates the paradox of critiquing self-filming while being professionally filmed in the very act, as Hart performs a unique modern dance sequence influenced by the irreverent choreography of Yvonne Rainer while on an abandoned beach at sunset.
Annie Hart’s educational journey includes studying at Juilliard and tutelage under notable composers like Timo Andres, Randy Woolf, and Conrad Cummings. Notably, Hart’s compositions have been recognized with several prestigious grants and residencies, highlighting her remarkable talent. In 2017, Hart received the PRAH Foundation Writing Residency in Margate, UK. She was also the recipient of the 2020 Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant for a writing residency at Aunt Karen’s Farm in Mt. Vision, NY. Hart’s compositions won her the NYC Artist Corps Grant in 2021, and in 2022, she had a composing residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Most recently, in 2023, Hart was awarded the Queens Art Fund grant for her composition and public performance of a string quartet piece.
As she looks ahead, Hart continues to push her creative boundaries. She is currently scoring the short Aphasia as part of the prestigious ASCAP/Columbia University Film Scoring Workshop. Annie continues to break boundaries by composing music for patient listeners in her own distinctive self-taught style. 2023 will see the release of several projects, further building on the momentum of her career. More information on the album and her upcoming North American tour dates will be released soon.