Anneke van Giersbergen

Anna Maria van Giersbergen, (Sint Michielsgestel, March 8, 1973), known artistically as Anneke van Giersbergen, is a Dutch singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist who became known worldwide as the lead singer and songwriter for the Dutch progressive/alternative rock band, The Gathering, between 1995 and 2007. Currently she has a solo career. The project was originally called Agua de Annique, but later going by her own name.

A frequent collaborator of Arjen Anthony Lucassen, she portrayed main characters in the albums Into the Electric Castle, 01011001 and The Theater Equation by his project Ayreon. In 2014 they created a new band together, The Gentle Storm, with a first album titled The Diary released in 2015.

van Giersbergen has also worked with Devin Townsend, Within Temptation, Anathema, Lawn, Farmer Boys, Napalm Death, Moonspell, Novembers Doom, Globus, Giant Squid, and many other artists and projects.

Biography

Early years

van Giersbergen was born in the small city of Sint Michielsgestel, Netherlands. She began singing at age 7, when she participated in a music contest. At 12 years old she participated in her school choir where she studied and toured through France. Later she began taking singing lessons and joined her first band. After this first experience, Anneke joined several bands. In 1992, she founded the duet "Bad Breath" with guitarist and singer Deniz Cagdas (Spencer Edgards), with predominantly rhythms like blues, jazz, folk and funk. She joined The Gathering in 1994, and she is most notable for her work with them.

Anneke van Giersbergen (band)

Anneke van Giersbergen (formerly Agua de Annique and Anneke van Giersbergen and Agua de Annique) is the solo project of the former The Gathering vocalist, Anneke van Giersbergen.

History

The project was announced on 5 June 2007, the same day that both The Gathering and Anneke van Giersbergen issued separate announcements that van Giersbergen would leave the band in August.

Air and Pure Air (2007–2008)

She and her new bandmates laid down some basic tracks for the first album at the Waterfront Studios in Rotterdam and recorded overdubs at The Void in Eindhoven, as well as in her own home studio. Several of these songs were made available on the band's official web site. A track, "Ice Water", has been said to feature a string arrangement by Jeffrey Fayman. Additional vocals for the track "Lost and Found" were done by Kristin Fjellseth, who also wrote the track "Sunken Soldiers Ball". Heleen de Witte is said to play flute on unspecified tracks while Timothy Conroy provides some trumpet work. They released their first album called Air at the end of 2007, mixed by Jon Anders Narum.