ABOUT

Anika (Annika Henderson) is an artist who defies easy categorization—a sonic alchemist weaving together dub, post-punk, and psychedelia with flashes of drum & bass, all anchored by her striking voice and confrontational lyricism. Formerly a journalist, she brings a sharp, observational depth to her music, which oscillates between rebellion and release. Her latest album, Abyss, is a raw response to the chaos of our times,

"The world might be going to shit, but that’s why we need to meet in real life, vent, dance the pain away, play music, listen to music, laugh, cry, build bridges, come together..."

This ethos pulses through her work, where sound, poetry, and activism collide. She embraces imperfection, leaving flaws exposed, structures loose. In a musical landscape obsessed with technology Anika’s directness feels radical. Abyss isn’t about chasing novelty; it’s about clarity, presence, and the urgent need for human connection.

(Excerpt from https://www.ninunina.com/home/2025/8/6/anikas-abyss-dancing-through-the-darkness)

BIO

Anika (DE/GB) -- born Annika Henderson in Woking, UK -- is a multi-practice artist, first launched onto the music scene with her 2010 eponymous début album, created in a single jam session with Bristol-band Beak>, when she auditioned for a position as vocalist within the group. Produced by Geoff Barrow and released on Stones Throw/Invada, 'Anika', with its creative immediacy and sense of urgency, would carve a singular space for the artist in the musical landscape of the continent, and her first tour would go on to count Beak> members, Billy Fuller and Matt Williams, as her touring band throughout Europe and the US.

Stemming from her early work as a political journalist, Anika puts a strong emphasis on text and image, as one can see in her take on the tradition of the murder ballad in "Officer Officer", and sprawls her artistic practice into other forms: poetry, photography, performance, DJing, and video -- as a means to better understand and make the world around us, build bridges between communities, unpick complexities, break down contradictory social norms. Henderson moves between the disciplines, in an on-going exploration of things and a multipronged attack of limitations placed on artists in our current socioeconomic madness. With her spoken-texts, she allows the electronic elements to flow and binds them to multidimensional performances. Her photography unmasks the solitude in our alleged hyper-connectivity.

She is a founding member of Mexican psych-band Exploded View (Sacred Bones), and has worked across the arts with the likes of film director Jim Jarmusch (co-writing the soundtrack to his latest film 'Father, Mother, Brother, Sister', 2025), Tricky (Massive Attack), punk legend Gudrun Gut (Malaria!), Shackleton (a full album, 'Behind the Glass', 2017), performance artist Melanie Jame Wolf, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Soundwalk Collective (On the 2024 album, 'It's All Breaking Apart' with Elvin Brandhi, Gudrun Gut and Nina Kraviz), n.b.k gallery Berlin, Clark (Anika features on 2023 song "Sus Dog"), computer programmer Raoul Sanders/A.I (The Writing Robot. 2017), fashion house Jil Sander and artist Philipp Geist, composing and performing a live soundscape for a light installation in Tehran, IR, in 2015. Her latest releases include the hopeful pop-indie album ‘Change’ (2021), a video art experiment called 'Anika - Alone In The City', in collaboration with n.b.k gallery in Berlin (2021), and her guitar, synth driven psychedelic experimental live album 'Eat Liquid‘ (live recording from Zeiss Planetarium, Berlin 2023).

In 2025 she released her third solo studio LP under the name Anika, entitled 'Abyss' on Sacred Bones and is touring extensively.

With Abyss, Anika invites listeners into a space for release, rebellion, and honesty, creating an album that speaks to the turmoil of our times while offering an emotional outlet. As she puts it, “This is a space for you.”