In this episode, I talk with the New York City-based singer, songwriter, and pianist, Anna Dagmar about her song Satellite. Anna mixes elements from her training in jazz piano with inviting pop melodies and classical piano textures. For her previous album, Let The Waves Come In Threes, DJ George Graham of WVIA called it “one of the best singer-songwriter albums of the year.” She has been favorably compared to Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Judy Collins, and Regina Spector, and cites inspirations including George Gershwin, Anais Mitchell, Sufjan Stevens and Jonatha Brooke. In June Anna released her latest album titled Satellite.
The album’s most vulnerable moment is the single, also titled “Satellite.” Inspired by her father’s mathematical mind and her mother’s spirituality, the song joins together the Story of Creation with The Big Bang, and asks the question, “Are we the sum of all we’ve chosen to believe? Can I be somewhere in between?” Dagmar scored an elegantly elegiac string quartet intro that appropriately evokes this grappling introspection. This initial heady mood is then transformed by a winsome hook as the band joins in and uplifts the track with a warm, nuanced groove. Dagmar sings with grace and purity; she elongates notes with an ease and humility that shows her range without “showcasing” it. Her crystalline piano playing is similarly understated. She works with rich and expansive chords interspersed with sensitive melodic flourishes.
You can find Anna's music at www.annadagmar.com.