ANOHNI and The Johnsons have joined forces for the first time in over 10 years to create new music. The first single is set for release later this month.
The surprise announcement was made by lead singer ANOHNI — previously known as Antony — who shared an update on Instagram, teasing a new single called ‘IT MUST CHANGE’.
The social media post also included a picture of two billboards, back to back, in Camden. On a simple navy background, the first billboard showed the group’s name and logos, while the second simply read “IT MUST CHANGE”, written in scrawling handwriting. In the caption, ANOHNI confirmed that the single will be arriving on May 16.
The upcoming track marks the group’s first new music since their 2014 soundtrack album, ‘Turning’, a collection of live recordings that accompanied ANOHNI’s film of the same name. Before that, the group released their 2012 live album ‘Cut The World’, which featured two previously unreleased tracks: ‘Cut The World’ and ‘Future Feminism’.
Their last full-length LP came in the form of ‘Swanlights’, which was released in 2010. Following their hiatus, ANOHNI has pursued a solo career, and released her debut album ‘Hopelessness’ in 2016, and an EP, ‘Paradise’ the following year.
Back in 2021, the singer teamed up with The National’s Bryce Dessner, to collaborate on a new string arrangement of the former’s song ‘Another World’. The original version of the song appeared on the 2008 EP of the same name, which was made alongside The Johnsons. The track — ‘Another World (String Arrangement)’ — went on to appear on Dessner’s album ‘Impermanence/Disintegration’, which he created with the Australian String Quartet.
More recently, however, ANOHNI was listed among numerous artists set to feature on Rufus Wainwright’s new album ‘Folkocracy’. Set for release on June 2 via BMG, the release is described as an album of “folk music reinventions”, and features special guests including David Byrne, John Legend, Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, Andrew Bird, Nicole Scherzinger, Susanna Hoffs, Van Dyke Parks and Madison Cunningham.