New single 'To The In Between' out 24 March
Andria Degens, better known by her stage name Pantaleimon, is a British musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has released four studio albums, several EPs and singles. 2023 brings new music from Pantaleimon after a period of prolonged dormancy.
The Conversation is an offering of peace in our loud and fractured world, a meditation played entirely on Appalachian dulcimer and recorded at Andria’s home studio in Devon. Andria writes: "The Conversation came to me during the first lockdown and after a chain of personal challenges over some years, which had prevented me from releasing new music until now. It's a calling to one's higher consciousness in times of losing faith, then finding it again." 'The Conversation' marked the beginning of a return back into the spotlight, Pantaleimon releases a second single on the 24th March 2023 from the new EP, due later this year.
Pantaleimon is the pseudonym of English musician Andria Degens (dee-jens). Andria performs on guitar, keyboards, Indian harmonium, Appalachian dulcimers, utilising samples, field recordings and voice. Her music explores themes of embodiment in landscape, nature, and inner transformation. The result is trance-inducing folk music, inspired by an eclectic mix, such as Brian Eno, Can, Neu, Mississippi Fred McDowall, Eden Ahbez, Djivan Gasparyan, Kate Bush, Nico, David Bowie, Soundgarden, Vedic chanting, and Mozart. Although having been signed to other labels in the past Andria has released through her own imprint Grass Girl Music since 2013. As Pantaleimon she has worked solo, and with artists Isobel Campbell, Jay Darlington (Kula Shaker), Will Oldham, James Blackshaw, Hugo Race, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter, and Hush Arbors. Andria's work is featured on the soundtrack for Cam Archer' ‘Wild Tigers I Have Known’; she appears on: Current 93’s ‘Black Ships Ate The Sky’ with her version of ‘Idumea’; on The Dirty Three’s ‘Horse Stories’; on Susan Stenger’s ‘Soundtrack for an Exhibition’; on X-TG's Desertshore/The Final Report; on Hugo Race’s 'Between Hemispheres'; albums by Strings of Consciousness and Lüüp. And in 2021 she appeared on Marc Pilley’s Arksong album ‘Ruin Valley Rising’ and on his latest single 'One Kind'.
“Over gently plucked acoustic guitar, bouzouki, dulcimer and cello, Degens sings simple, devotional paens to nature. Her voice, often double-tracked or harmonised with guests Isobel Campbell and Baby Dee, is delicate but far from vulnerable. Anne Briggs, Vashti Bunyan and Bjork's Vespertine are touchstones for an album of humble joy.” - Uncut Mag
“Andria plays dulcimer, bouzouki and tambura with a languid touch, eschewing the raw speed that most of those instruments’ handlers evoke in favor of glistening texture. Her notes hang, twisting in the breeze, and the vocals she offers on one track are reminiscent of Christina Carter at her most gravity-defying.” - Byron Coley, Wire Mag
“The Butterfly Ate the Pearl, her fifth release, is the most psychedelic and progressive to date, blending Dead Can Dance with Black Sun Ensemble with Dzyan with Vetiver with Fern Knight with Wolff & Hennings with Nico with Deuter with, well, quite an array of influences and sounds..” - Mark Tucker, Accoustic Music
“While ‘Change my World’ is similar in tone to the folk-tinged, Indian raga style of Stephen O’Malley’s recent Ginnungagap project, Cloudburst is a more melodic affair and ranks alongside John Fahey’s ‘Blind Joe Death’ sagas (1959–87) or Jim O’Rourke’s Bad Timing (1997) in its finger-picked candour. The seven-inch ‘Under the Water’ is even more succinct, reminiscent of folk singer Vashti Bunyan but with more of the lamentation of Bunyan’s contemporary Bonnie Dobson. .” Frieze Mag