Annie A

Annie A is the one-off collaborative project between Félicia Atkinson, Christina Petrie and Time is Away’s Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney, with Maxine Funke also appearing on their debut album, The Wind That Had Not Touched Land. Released on A Colourful Storm in 2025, the geographically diverse ensemble explores the delicate interplay between the human voice, electronics and organic found sound. Its seeds were sown during A Colourful Storm’s last event at Cafe OTO, a spring night in 2022, when the stage was shared by Atkinson, Time is Away and Petrie after years of mutual appreciation. On record, Petrie’s voice drifts effortlessly from a wide-eyed stream of consciousness to crystalline sensory expression and accompanies Atkinson’s textural tones that reflect upon the fragility of ecology and surrendering of self to air, rain, and earth. Time is Away’s layering of sonic accoutrements and sensitivity to detail is likened to the meticulous textile assembly of Anni Albers, whose enduring spirit and seeking of wonder in intricacies guides the project.

“A tentative interplay of contrasting vocalisations - whispers, repeated phrases, always lyrical or melodic” - The Wire

Félicia Atkinson

For Félicia Atkinson, human voices inhabit an ecology alongside and within many other things that don’t speak, in the conventional sense: landscapes, images, books, memories, ideas. The French electro-acoustic composer and visual artist makes music that animates these possible voices in conversation with her own, collaging field recording and electronic and traditional instrumentation with snippets of essayistic language. Her voice, always shifting to create a sense of space, might whisper from the corner or assume another character’s tone. Her layered compositions tell stories that alternately stretch and fold time and place; stories in which she is the narrator but not the protagonist.

Atkinson lives on the coast of Normandy and has been active since the early 2000s. She has released many records and a novel on Shelter Press, the label she co-runs with Bartolomé Sanson. She has collaborated with musicians including Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Chris Watson, Christina Vantzou and Stephen O’Malley, and with ensembles including Eklekto and Neon. She has performed at venues and festivals including INA GRM/Maison de la Radio and the Philharmonie, Issue Project Room, the Barbican Center and Le Guess Who, and returns to Cafe Oto following A Colourful Storm’s night in 2023.

Christina Petrie

Writer and poet Christina Petrie is the primary voice of Annie A and also features on Time is Away’s Ballads compilation, her eponymous poem an ode to her longstanding collaboration and listening experiences with Time is Away's work. She also presents a new solo recital on the night.

Time is Away

Time is Away is Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney, two visionary storytellers who map personal, poetic and sometimes playful dérives through the histories of their imagination. The voice is an instrument, a letter from home, the colour of pomegranates. Over the better half of a decade, they have made tender and heartfelt transmissions through countless mixes, sound works, live appearances and radio. Exploring themes of memory, persistence and resistance using an assemblage of source material, the duo’s unique mode of storytelling has culminated in two officially licensed compilations, Ballads and Searchlight Moonbeam, and arrangement duties for Annie A.