Anne Vanschothorst

Anne Vanschothorst (The Netherlands) is a landscape music composer, minimal harp pioneer, and multimedia artist exploring creativity in applied music, film, and spoken word — using overdub and making sound sculptures with 47 strings. She received international critical acclaim as an indie composer and producer who records sound on sound stilled mystical landscape music for in-a-room, film, multimedia, and spoken word. This new poetic and inventive, edgy sonic universe next to the existing harp planet and music world, indicates that Vanschothorst walks off the beaten track. The written note-scores are frequently performed by international musicians and added to their repertoire. The “You Play I listen!” platform is an ongoing creativity project that was initiated to share Harp and Soul Music performed by others via videos and sound-clouds.

In 2014, Vanschothorst released EK IS EIK (I Am Oak) on Big Round Records to international acclaim. She followed with the multimedia Beautiful World (2017) and harPoetry (Afrikaans/Dutch), a book-CD collaboration with poet Antjie Krog. Her 2023 release, That I Did Always Love—an Emily Dickinson-inspired harp soundscape—was produced with Grammy-winning PARMA Recordings.

Vanschothorst draws inspiration from people, poetry, nature, and everyday moments. Her visual music works, co-created with photographer Pjotr van Schothorst, air on Stingray TV. Her audio has featured in films, TV (Animal Planet, Discovery), and art installations—including museum commissions and global art collaborations. Highlights include a sculptural video for “The Centre for the Less Good Idea” in South Africa, animated poetry shown at festivals, and harPoetry showcased at the 2022 International Alliance for Women in Music. She is also a member of LandscapeMusic.org, promoting music inspired by nature and place.

Press

“Many of the miniatures remind me of Erik Satie — not that her music is in his style, but that both composers so thoroughly explore an artfully restricted sonic universe — in which chords and single melodic lines appear in alternation and at a pace slow enough to experience them almost as if they were sounding sculptures.”  – American Record Guide

“Anne’s magic gives us a weird sonorous world with bizarre fauna and flora through poetic imagination.” –  Klassiek Centraal

“There is a stunning soundtrack quality to Anne Vanschothorst’s music, but that should be no surprise as she has been called upon to provide such to the visual arts.” – All About Jazz

Listen to Anne Vanschothorst