Antony and the Johnsons is a Mercury Prize-winning music act from New York City
By mid-90's Antony began a solo, after initially producing tracks with the Black Lips and other late cabaret shows, he had a number of songs to work with in 1995, he gathered a support group of self-appointed Antony and the Johnsons and began to focus on the musical side of his performances group built up a cult following in the hip New York clubs such as Kitchen and Knitting Factory Antony then received a NYFA for "performance art / emergent forms," which he used for to record Johnson's debut album "Blue Angel" which remained unreleased until 93 Current leader David Tibet was signed Antony and the Johnsons on his Durtro label The cast list of musiker on the album under the title of R20, Antony and the Johnsons "in 1998 included a transsexual performer Baby Dee (harp), François Gehin (bass) Todd Cohen (drums), Charles Neilson (guitar) and a number of string and woodwind players this album was later reissued 2000 and 2004 by Secretly Canadian
This collection of modern torch songs selected Antony soulful multi octave vocals and the Johnsons' graceful chamber pop arrangements reached a peak of "Cripple And The Starfish" and "Divine", the latter a tribute to the late transvestite movie star Additional recordings by Antony and the Johnsons emerged at the beginning of the new millennium, including "I fell in love with a Dead Boy" and a single EP "Live at St. Olave's" by Current 93 recorded live at St Olave's Church in London, England
At the beginning of 2001 was released 3 song EP "I fell in love with a Dead Boy" who is covering the Mysteries of Love (originally appeared in the film Blue Velvet) and Soft Black Stars
Split EP includes two new songs from the Johnson, the first where you stand over me just a minute and thirty-six seconds long but contains all the melancholy and drama one would expect from Johnson The other new track was the lake which was a 1827 poem written by Edgar Allan Poe is beautifully suited to the track The Johnsons shown with Current 93 again on a 7 "with side B including the song the Virgin Mary, this was limited to 500 copies each released 12 May 2003 by visiting line-up of Johnson appears Todd Cohen, Jeff Langston (bass), Jason Hart (piano), Julia Kent (cello), Joan Wasser (violin) and Maxim Moston (violin)
Around this time Lou Reed heard "I fell in love with a Dead Boy" EP Reed then recruited Antony for his album The Raven for the guest singers and took him on tour in 2003 which meant that Anthony appeared on Lou's live album Animal Serenade with the band now attracting wider attention Antony and the Johnsons contract with US-based label Secretly Canadian Secretly Canadian reissued after the band's debut to a wider audience in the U.S.
The Lake was released the following year by the new label, it is yet another 3 Let EP including "The Lake" - Lou Reed showed up on Fistful of Love with guest vocals and guitar The Horror has gone Antony seems to be expressing at the end of a depressing stage in his life a positive Nyallyrical change from the debut style
In February 2005, Antony and the Johnsons released their second full length, I Am A Bird Now it has guest appearances by Rufus Wainwright, Devendra Banhart Lou Reed and Boy George, it went on to take the good reviews in Britain and won Antony the Technics Mercury Music Prize for 2005
The 5-song Another World EP was released on October 7, 2008 As promised, showing a mixture of the continuation of the earlier songs 'atmosphere as well as more experimental work of Antony and the Johnsons' third album The Crying Light "is expected to January 21, 2009 More information has not yet been announced but Antony has described the theme of the album as "the landscape and the future"
