“I wanted to retrieve my late grandma’s voice for my mum. Then I realised what she was really talking about”: How The Anchoress found a new way of dealing with trauma from a long-lost tape
Catherine Anne Davies, who performs as The Anchoress, has released a new album, As We Once Were, which explores how she has changed her relationship with trauma across four generations of her family. The record follows her acclaimed 2021 album The Art Of Losing, and rejects what she calls the "toxic idea of the tortured genius" who must remain stuck in suffering, instead arguing that healing means accepting loss rather than trying to return to who you were before it.
The album weaves together recordings of Davies's own voice with those of her late grandmother, her mother, and her young daughter, linking four generations of women in her family. Its themes are shaped by inherited family trauma, including the drowning of her mother's older sister and two others in the River Severn, which has left Davies cautious about her own child near water. She describes this passed-down caution as protective, comparing it to learning instinctively that mushrooms can be poisonous or fire is hot.
- The Anchoress's new album As We Once Were addresses generational family trauma.
- It features recordings of her grandmother, mother and daughter's voices.
- Follows on from 2021's The Art Of Losing, exploring healing rather than suffering.