BIO

Anu Junnonen

Coming out of a musical family Anu started singing before speaking according to her mom. In her teens she sang in her hometown choirs, played piano, saxophone and flute. Anu’s musical expression is rooted in jazz. In 1999 she came to Belgium to study at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where she also formed her first band called aNoo that mixed jazz and folk influences in an original line-up including voice, accordeon, and trombone. In 2007 she released her first album ‘The Luckless Lands Of the North’. In 2011 followed ‘Sinipiika’, which she made together with the producer Werner Pensaert (K’s Choice, Clouseau, Jef Neve). But as the two albums she recorded with that band would prove, Anu was far from being a jazz purist. The singer became more and more intrigued by samples and digital beats. This new fascination resulted in ‘Skeletons’ (2014), the first of her records on which she herself was calling the shots. The EP ‘Open Your Window’ (2018) was produced by Koen Gisen (cf. Dans Dans, Robbing Millions etc). Her latest album ‘Komeetta’ (2023) is the culmination of 5 years of sharing the stage as a trio. Now singing in Finnish and in English, her fourth studio album ‘Komeetta’ is bringing her closer to her origins. The musical material now being more stripped and sober, which creates an intimate path towards the public. The mix between the Finnish heritage and Anu’s Belgian experience gives her an instantly recognisable sound, a sound of her own. Komeetta is recorded in Antwerp at the Caporal studio by Nicolas Rombouts and the album is mixed and produced by Gil Mortio and Anu at the Marcel Delcourt studio in Brussels. Since 2011 Anu is also a co- leader of Brussels Vocal Project, a contemporary vocal collective that mainly perform newly composed material through collaborations with different singers and composers. Anu has been performing in various venues and festivals in Belgium and abroad. With her groups she toured in Germany, Finland, Norway, China and Morocco. Anu is also a devoted teacher and is currently teaching at The Conservatory of Ghent and the music academy of Jette. She is regularly invited to teach workshops of jazz, folk or a capella singing.