The Cedar Presents
Anna Johnson “Swarm of Tongues” Album Release with Matthew Rahaim & Davu Seru and GLASS (Annie Enneking & Kari Tweiten)
Thursday, October 8, 2026 / Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 7:30 PM
All Ages
Seated
listen
about this show
Minnesota-reared and Chicago-based, Anna Johnson celebrates the release of her debut LP Swarm of Tongues with a special hometown concert. She will be accompanied by Ben Baker Billington (percussion), Andrew Scott Young (bass) and Paige Naylor (vocals, synthesizers). Joining the night are Hindustani vocalist Matthew Rahaim with percussionist Davu Seru, and avant pop duo GLASS (Annie Enneking & Kari Tweiten).
Anna Johnson
Anna’s sound unites electroacoustic improvisation with backgrounds in medieval folk traditions and sacred music. Based in drone and hypnotic repetition, she is invested in vocal expression as a portal to somatic and emotional presence. Anna’s performances integrate projection installations of her textural film work, and her approach to live art is ritualistic; she seeks embodied and communal experiences of vulnerability and spiritual catharsis. She is drawn to the meeting points between personal and mythical, present and ancient.
Anna is based in Chicago and tours regularly in North America and Europe. She originates from Minnesota, where she was raised with Celtic and Anglo folk traditions and sacred choral music, and studied both Western classical as well as traditional Eastern European polyphony with Mila Vocal Ensemble. She holds an MFA from the Performance department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Studio Art from Macalester College. Anna’s debut EP Unknowing was released in 2025 on UK label Industrial Coast and her debut LP Swarm of Tongues releases in October 2026 on Somnimage. She was awarded an Outer Ear Session at Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio in spring 2026 for a recording project, and selected as a finalist for National Sawdust’s 2026 Hildegard Commission, which will culminate in a December 2026 concert featuring a performance of her compositional work by Trinity Choir and the National Sawdust ensemble.
Matthew Rahaim & Davu Seru
Matthew Rahaim is a musician grounded in the Gwalior lineage of Hindustani music. He is a shagird of Laxman Krishnarao Pandit. Matthew's recent compositions and installations have appeared at the Modulus Festival, the Wakpa Triennial, Drone Not Drones, and The Great Beyond. Matthew's recent project, Resonant Transmutations, features a suite of newly composed pieces for instruments crafted by Pedram Baldari out of decommissioned police rifles.
Minneapolis-Saint Paul resident Davu Seru is an improvising musician and composer known primarily for his work on drums. His playing has afforded him an international reputation and awards from McKnight Foundation (2020 Composer Fellowship), Jerome Foundation (2017-18 Composer/Sound Artist Fellow) and commissions from Walker Art Center and Zeitgeist ensemble. For the past two decades-plus his collaborators have included Anthony Cox, Milo Fine, George Cartwright, Nirmala Rajasekar, Douglas R. Ewart, Jack Wright, Michelle Kinney, Dean Magraw, Jamal Moore, Paul Metzger, Evan Parker, J. Otis Powell ‽, Didier Petit, Babatunde Lea, Nathan Hanson, deVon Russell Gray, Mankwe Ndosi, Rafael Toral, David Boykin, Donald Washington, Guillame Seguron, Louis Alemayehu, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tony Hymas, Catherine Delaunay, Ta-coumba Aiken and Nicole Mitchell Gantt. Davu is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
GLASS (Annie Enneking & Kari Tweiten)
GLASS (Annie Enneking & Kari Tweiten), known for their powerhouse performances in rock band Annie and the Bang Bang) offers stripped-down, minimalist songs for voice, piano, and bass—small, reflective pieces that are simple, direct, and quietly immersive.
Learn more about GLASS (Annie Enneking & Karl Tweiten) here.