The Swansea Fringe Festival

Anne-Marie Helder

 

The look of this Little Red Rock Chick is as striking as the music that she makes.  Anne-Marie Helder’s stunning solo debut, ‘The Contact’, drew favourable comparisons with such luminaries as Jeff Buckley and Kate Bush, but in truth, it is the way she immediately carves out her own niche with songs like ‘Blood Red Sky’ and “Stallions And Nags’ that suggests that Anne-Marie Helder  will be a name people will conjure with for a long time to come.

No stranger to the concert halls of the world with both TigerDragon and Karnataka, 2004 saw Helder make bold strides as an artist in her own right.

The November release of ‘The Contact’, six songs of stark passion and deep beauty, saw this talented multi-instrumentalist receive critical acclaim from publications like Classic Rock magazine and garner her airplay on Radio Two, no mean feat for a hitherto unknown, unsigned artist.

2005 sees Helder moving ever onwards and upwards. Extensive touring around the UK continues to spread the word, as well as introducing an ever increasing fan-base to a prolific stream of new material, some of which will be recorded on her next release, due out later this year.

America beckons too as Anne-Marie sets out to undertake her first solo US tour.

Plans are also afoot to expand musically - expect to see Anne-Marie Helder backed by a full-blown rock band soon…

“It’s been an amazing year… The response from everyone has blown me away!

 This is what I was born to do, and now I’m in the right place, at the right time.

I can’t wait to take it to the next level too… I’ve got so much material, ranging from the intimate to the aggressive, and I really want to allow the songs to take off – to go as far as music can go. And for some of them, this means to fully Rock!  So, my next release will feature a band line-up around me; then I can tour that way

- fuller, bigger, totally dynamic.

But, solo or with a band, the song’s the same ~ I’m here to weave a spell…

To captivate, enchant, and rock you!!! …And that’s what I’m gonna do!”

Anne-Marie Helder

"Her EP, The Contact, shows how highly talented she really is.  Recently supporting the likes of Midge Ure, she is currently performing solo ... With influences fom Classical music to Bob Dylan and Tracy Chapman, Anne-Marie Helder's dramatic and passionate style of songwriting is a real refreshment and a perfect example for any songwriter and appealing to both acoustic and rock fans."

Sound Nation

Photograph reproduced with permission from Carina Jirsch (c) 2005