The Anchoress

“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

From her early roots as a classically-trained flautist to her current obsession with vintage synthesizers, multi-instrumentalist and Music Producers Guild nominated producer and songwriter Catherine Anne Davies has spent the last six years developing her writing and engineering skills to become one of the most interesting up-and-coming songwriters and producers in the UK.

Her debut album as The Anchoress, “Confessions of A Romance Novelist”, was named amongst the Guardian critics’ Albums of the Year, won HMV’s Welsh Album of the Year, Best Newcomer at the PROG awards, and a first nomination for the Welsh Music Prize. Her critically-lauded Top 40 second The Art of Losing album was released in 2021 and hailed as “one of my favourite records of the year” by Sir Elton John. Caitlin Moran called it “the inadvertent, beautiful, and truthful soundtrack to this moment” and The Sunday Times named it as one of their 7 “must-hear” Albums of 2021.

Produced and written by Davies, 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).

The album successfully transformed wall-to-wall critical plaudits (including The Sunday Times Album of the Week and Guardian Albums of the Month) into a Top 10 position in the UK physical album charts, as well as the #1 spot on iTunes and a second nomination for the Welsh Music Prize. It was also named album of the year by The Sunday Times, The Line of Best Fit, Mail on Sunday, Prog, and The Sun.

In 2018 she appeared on two tracks and duetted on “Dylan & Caitlin’ from the No.2 album by the Manic Street Preachers “Resistance is Futile”, subsequently appearing as a special guest at the Manics arena shows, and being personally invited by Robert Smith (The Cure) to perform at his Meltdown Festival. She can often be seen performing on stage with the band.

Alongside writing and producing, over the past few years Catherine also brought a new generation of ears to legendary Scottish rock band Simple Minds. She joined the line-up in 2014, bringing a fresh sound and look to the legendary Scottish band, appearing on the Big Music (2015) and Walk Between Worlds (2019) albums as well as touring on keyboards, guitar, and additional vocals, subsequently supporting the band on their 2017 acoustic tour.

She has co-hosted a 3-hour BBC 6Music Beatles special on the White Album alongside Martin Freeman and Jon Simm and now hosts the arts and culture podcast The Art of Losing.

Catherine has co-written with and worked alongside a variety of prominent industry names including Ed Harcourt (Paloma Faith & James Bay), Liam Howe (Jessie Ware, Marina) and Paul Statham (Kylie Minogue, Dido), as well her co-writing, engineering and production on 5 tracks on the Top 20 UK album ‘Spooky Action’ by Paul Draper.

While completing her PhD, Catherine was appointed ‘Emerging Artist in Residence’ at the Southbank Centre in London. During this 18 month-long tenure she collaborated on a new song cycle with Nitin Sawhney, as well as working with the London Philharmonic on new collaborative work.

As a member of the Dark Flowers supergroup (alongside Jim Kerr from Simple Minds, Pete Murphy from Bauhaus, Kate Havenevik, Gabriella Cilmi, and Shelley Poole from Alisha’s Attic), Catherine co-wrote 6 tracks and appears as a featured artist on both of the collective’s albums. She has also co-written with artists outside of the alternative rock genre, including MOBO-nominated singer-songwriter/cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson and British rapper/actor Riz Ahmed.

Her collaborative album with Bernard Butler (Suede, Duffy) was released in September 2020 via Needle Mythology to widespread critical acclaim.

She is currently elected Senator for the Ivors Academy, is a patron for the FAC (Featured Artists Coalition) and Music Venues Trust, and formerly sat on the UK Music Diversity Committee.