At just 21 years old, Anastasia Coope’s talents as a musician, painter, and folk artist are formidable, but it’s her haunting baritone that may first draw listeners in. Using layered recording techniques, she builds vast vocal choirs that sweep, chant, and swirl through her music, creating a phantasmic ether around her spectral timbre.
At just 21 years old, Anastasia Coope’s talents as a musician, painter, and folk artist are formidable, but it’s her haunting baritone that may first draw listeners in. Using layered recording techniques, she builds vast vocal choirs that sweep, chant, and swirl through her music, creating a phantasmic ether around her spectral timbre.
Hailing from the village of Cold Spring in upstate New York’s Hudson Valley, Coope cites Nico, Brigitte Fontaine, and Scandinavian choral music as provenance. Her work bears the lineage of classic psychedelic folk and can sound, at once, persuasively vintage and strikingly new.
Coope debuted in 2021 with her self-released EP, Seemeely, establishing her richly naturalistic recording approach. She was then invited by Animal Collective to perform at their curated edition of the Netherlands music festival, Le Guess Who, before opening a series of tour dates for Avey Tare.
“Her recorded music feels secluded to a special place, maybe otherworldly, yet it also feels grounded in the here and now,” Avey said. “She’s very much in control of her craft and able to dismember and loop song forms to express her ideas which feel very new and fresh.”
Coope also caught the ear of art-punk legends Liars whose frontman Angus Andrew issued her first seven-inch, “Tough Sun,” on his No Gold imprint.
“There’s a sense of immediacy and urgency when I’m making music, paintings, and drawings,” says Coope. “As a painter, I have a visual and artistic connection to landscapes; music can project landscapes, too. There’s an element of scene-setting, of creating a picture. It’s about trying to translate a visual portrayal of life into sound.”
