Today, AM Higgins (the solo project of musician Annie Toth) announces her first album, Hymning, due November 5, 2021 via Victorialand Records — the record was mixed by Casey Foubert, Sufjan Stevens' long-term collaborator. Alongside the announcement, AM Higgins also shares a new single + video entitled " Anchors," premiered via EARMILK.
"'Come along, and be my anchor' / this melody came to me and I sang it for months as a meditation to help soothe my mind while the world was coming undone," said Annie. The song that eventually unfolded is about providence; divine care for nature and the creatures of the earth. As the pandemic forced people to stay inside, nature flourished and on my hikes in the hills around my home, the ecosystems around me essentially sang these words.
Annie continued, "For this record, I asked Joshua [Dumas] to reach for an entirely new palette of sounds. 'Anchors' was the first one he sent back. The bells, the high strings - I love it all. He played the mandolin live and put it through a pixel grinder. And Jason has a skittery way of running around the organ chords on the drums with this one. It’s something we are continuing to explore." Hymning, her debut album under the moniker AM Higgins, captures the first years of moving from an American city to rural France; the first mystical years of leaving everything you know to find something new; the first years of slowing down your life to give way to the sounds that surround you. Accompanied by Jason Toth (The Handsome Family, Daniel Knox) on drums, Joshua Dumas (Mending) on electronics, and mixing and additional instruments by Casey Foubert (Sufjan Stevens, the Shins, Gabriel Kahane, Damien Jurado). The album began as an attempt to write modern-day hymns. But the resulting 8 songs are better understood as vocalizations of meditative moments of reflection, ushering the listener into an inexplicable feeling of coming home. Living in a rural landscape changed the rhythm of her life in very unexpected ways. The surrounding forests and hills began beckoning her to listen … the mystery of the seasons (Ode), the divine provision for creation (Anchors), and the sadness even while surrounded by so much beauty (All The Stars Are Out). Her lyrics draw inspiration from mystical poets like Thomas Merton and Mary Oliver who explore the rich mysteries of the inner landscape. | 
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