Introducing: Ani Glass

With a rare ability to merge language, movement, and emotion into something both deeply human and sonically futuristic, Ani Glass returns with her most personal work yet. Her new album, Phantasmagoria (out September 26), emerges from a period of profound transformation — following a rare benign brain tumour diagnosis and the birth of her daughter, who was born profoundly deaf. The result is a lush, cinematic record that folds Welsh, Cornish, English, and British Sign Language into an ethereal, forward-looking vision of pop.

With shimmering synths that nod to Goldfrapp and Jean-Michel Jarre,Phantasmagoria moves between fragility and resilience — “music for the end of the world, and the start of a new one.” Ahead of her UK tour, Ani sat down with BabyStep Magazine to talk about healing through sound, language as identity, and learning to find light in the dark.

1. Your debut album Mirores centred on movement and observation, and now Phantasmagoria feels like a more inward, emotional journey. How did your personal experiences — especially your diagnosis — shape the sound and themes of this new record?

I was quite instinctive in my approach to writing and recording the songs on the new album so I think that it’s only in retrospect that I can see how these experiences shaped it. There are certainly more sombre, subtle and quiet moments on this record, but I think the two albums are quite matched in terms of optimism and hope. Whilst the songs are contemplative, the record doesn’t dwell too much, both sonically and thematically, and this was quite intentional in order to reflect how we navigate changes in our lives.

2. You’ve woven Welsh, Cornish, English, and even British Sign Language into this project. What role does language — both spoken and visual — play in how you express emotion and identity through music?

Language is absolutely key, it’s about finding the most honest and effective way to communicate your creative ideas and for me this isn’t just about focussing on the sonic world, it’s also about expressing your visual ideas too. I always write music with images in mind – be it a colour, a theme or a narrative, but for this album there was far more at play in this respect. My baby, who is now 19 months old, was born profoundly deaf and so this has had a significant impact on how I want to present my work. I want to create art that she can engage with (should she want to of course!) and so including BSL and captioning in my shows is one small thing I can do to help her as best I can to navigate this otherwise noisy world.

3. There’s a rich legacy of 1980s synth pioneers like Giorgio Moroder and Jean-Michel Jarre in your influences, yet your music feels unmistakably modern. How do you strike that balance between nostalgia and futurism?

Thank you for saying that. I’m not sure it’s something that I actively think about. My music is without doubt grounded in 80s synth pop music but I’m always trying to push myself to experiment creatively – this is not only with regards to song structure or chord sequences, it’s also about trying to avoid feeling too comfortable or forming too many habits (be it good or bad) so that you always feel that you’re developing. In that sense, I think this means that whilst I am always grounded in the past, I always have one eye on the future.

4. “Music for the end of the world, and the start of a new one” is such a powerful line. How does Phantasmagoria speak to both endings and beginnings — not just in your life, but in the wider world right now?

Phantasmagoria is about journeys; it’s about navigating big changes and obstacles one step at a time. It was never written as a concept album but framing it like that helped me to piece together my experiences over the past few years in a far more cohesive way which has really helped me to digest everything. The album deals with feelings of sadness, of loneliness and of isolation but it is also hopeful and happy. And in truth, life is just that, a complex mix of despair and hope, of dark and light, of night and day. It’s just a matter of remembering that there is not one without the other.

5. Your live performances incorporate language, movement, and visual storytelling. What can audiences expect from this upcoming tour — and how do you bring an album like Phantasmagoria to life on stage?

For this tour, I’m playing with a fantastic cellist – Tabitha Selley. The addition of the cello adds so much more depth and dynamics to the performances. I also have new visuals which include the lyrics and translations for each song and is my way of ensuring that deaf audiences can fully engage with the performances. This has been, without doubt, the most rewarding part of performing my new album and is one that I will continue to develop.