Purveyors of "Uneasy Listening" Music

J.C. & Anphibius

Purveyors of "Uneasy Listening" Music

Londoner J.C. and New Yorker Anphibius (Antony Fine) met in NYC and began playing and writing together in 1999. Since then the duo has been developing a melodic but minimal sound with little more than piano and their two voices. J.C.'s fetishistic tales of love, lost love, and self-love combine Nick Drake's fragile melancholy, Leonard Cohen's vocal texture, and Noel Coward's wit. His singing has been described as mining the same dark vein as John Cale, Nick Cave, and Lee Hazlewood. Anphibius' music is at times mesmerizingly bare, and at times lush and poppy. His piano style runs the gamut from Burt Bacharach to Erik Satie. The duo's strategy of presenting songs in their most honest, naked form leaves plenty of space for listeners to contemplate their own sins. Tender and sprinkled with sophisticated humor, the songs make you feel as if you're in your own sitting room sipping cognac.

Their European tours over the last few years have yielded mounting enthusiasm. The duo has performed regularly in venues in England, France, Switzerland, Denmark, and The Netherlands. In New York, the band's home base, venues have included The Mercury Lounge, The Knitting Factory, Joe's Pub, Luna Lounge, Fez, Tonic, Detour, and many other clubs.

Deathbed Recollections, their first CD, collects 13 songs and adds special seasonings to their intimate live sound, including theremin by Dorit Chrysler, drums and cornet by The Ladybug Transistor members San Fadyl and Gary Olson, and cello by Frank Heer of Melomane. Resurrection Jingles, their second CD, is lusher than the first, featuring a hefty dose of kit drums by New York drummer-about-town Mike Linn (of The Optic Nerve). The Moonrats' Peter Hall also guests on harmonica.

Experiencing J.C. & Anphibius may not change your life. The only guarantee is that every song will tell a story.