Introduction
Anna Maria Murphy (born 10 August 1989) is a Swiss musician and audio engineer. She was a longtime member of the folk metal band Eluveitie from 2006 until 2016, in which she performed the lead clean vocals and played the hurdy-gurdy and flute. Since her departure from Eluveitie, she has been the lead singer of the folk metal band Cellar Darling.
Biography
Anna Murphy was born as the daughter of the Dublin-born Irish Andrew Murphy and a Swiss mother, Christiane Boesiger. Because both of her parents work in Switzerland as professional opera singers, she came in contact with music in her early childhood years.
In 2006, at the age of 16, she became the hurdy-gurdy player of the Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie. At that time, the band was looking for a hurdy-gurdy player. A friend mentioned her to them and so, Murphy was taken in. Before that, she had played the hurdy-gurdy for only a few months. Impressed by the German band Faun, she started playing it. After taking some classes at the music academy, she borrowed the instrument to mainly practice the music from Eluveitie. In addition, she occasionally plays the flute and sings in many of the songs.
In early 2010, Murphy formed, together with fellow Eluveitie member Meri Tadic, the ambient project godnr.universe!. By the end of the year, she also joined the folk group Fräkmündt (named after the ancient name of Mount Pilatus), which was one of the national contestants of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011. In the end, their song D'Draachejongfer couldn't beat In Love for a While (a song by Anna Rossinelli). Since the spring of 2011, Murphy worked as an audio engineer at the Obernauer Soundfarm Studios in Lucerne. In that same year, she also became a permanent member of the band Nucleus Torn.
She left Eluveitie on 5 May 2016, following Ivo Henzi and Merlin Sutter and starting a new band with them. This band is called Cellar Darling after her solo album.
Discography
With Eluveitie
Studio albums
- 2008: Slania
- 2009: Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion
- 2010: Everything Remains
- 2012: Helvetios
- 2014: Origins
Live albums
- 2008: Live @ Metalcamp 2008
- 2012: Live on Tour
Compilation albums
- 2009: Slania/Evocation I – The Arcane Metal Hammer Edition
Singles and EP's
- 2009: Omnos
- 2010: Thousandfold
- 2012: Meet the Enemy
With godnr.universe!
- 2010: godnr.universe!
With Fräkmündt
- 2010: Uufwärts e d'Föuse, bärgwärts e d'Rueh
- 2011: Heiwehland
- 2014: Landlieder & Frömdländler
With Nucleus Torn
- 2011: Golden Age
With Lethe
- 2014: When Dreams Become Nightmares
- 2017: The First Corpse On The Moon
With Cellar Darling
- 2017: This Is the Sound
- 2019: The Spell
Solo work
Studio albums
- 2013: Cellar Darling
Singles & EPs
- 2012: Twin Flames
- 2016: Mayday
Guest appearances
- 2010: Holy Grail – Crisis in Utopia
- 2010: Swashbuckle – Crime Always Pays
- 2011: Varg – Wolfskult
- 2011: Status Minor – Ouroboros
- 2012: Blutmond – Revolution is Dead
- 2014: Haïrdrÿer – Off to Haïradise
- 2016: Back To Life – A Tribute To Goodbye To Gravity
- 2017: Folkstone - Ossidiana