Biography
Working under the moniker Amber Arcades, Dutch singer/songwriter Annelotte de Graaf treats her musical path as a chance to venture across styles, enlisting skilled specialists to supply fitting support for her sincere, understated compositions. Dream pop defined her debut, the 2016 release Fading Lines, realized in Brooklyn with an all-star indie rock ensemble, while European Heartbreak from 2018 emerged as a polished singer/songwriter effort tracked at Spacebomb Studios in Virginia. Those projects served as preparation for Barefoot on a Diamond Road in 2023, an effort that fully embraced dense shoegaze, atmospheric trip-hop, and sweeping pop ballads through a commanding vocal style only suggested on prior recordings.
Born and raised in Utrecht, Holland, Annelotte de Graaf spent her teenage years setting aside earnings in anticipation of making an album. Temporary student life in Philadelphia during 2010 sparked her initial songwriting; upon returning to Holland she issued the folky EP Benjamin. She kept refining her material in the years that followed, issuing further EPs—Amber Arcades in 2013 and I Guess I'm Free But I Don't Know What That Means in 2014—while employed as legal aid for UN war crime tribunals and as an assistant at Holland's immigration center. Adopting the name Amber Arcades, she financed a trip to New York to collaborate with producer Ben Greenberg of the Sacred Bones band the Men. There she recorded her home-written Utrecht songs with musicians from Quilt, namely guitarist Shane Butler and bassist Keven Lareau, plus Real Estate drummer Jackson Pollis, resulting in a sound shaped by Stereolab and Broadcast. Heavenly Records responded by signing Amber Arcades and releasing the five-song Patiently EP in October 2015; the full-length Fading Lines appeared in June 2016. Later that year the band reconvened with Greenberg in N.Y.C. during a U.S. tour to cut the five-song EP Cannonball, issued in June 2017 and featuring a dream pop reinterpretation of Nick Drake's "Which Will" along with guest vocals from Bill Ryder-Jones.
For the second Amber Arcades album De Graaf initially envisioned a lo-fi yet simultaneously lush and arranged aesthetic. She began tracking with a small ensemble in Los Angeles under producer Chris Cohen of Deerhoof, then brought the material to Spacebomb Studios in Virginia, where producer Trey Pollard contributed strings and horns. Heavenly issued the finished European Heartbreak in September 2018.
Following her relocation from Utrecht to Amsterdam, de Graaf started planning a third album. She reunited with original collaborator Ben Greenberg for remote sessions that incorporated shoegaze, alternative rock, and downbeat trip-hop textures, enlisting drummer Matt Chamberlain, known from Smashing Pumpkins, to add rhythmic force. The resulting Barefoot on a Diamond Road stands as Amber Arcades' most dramatic, stylistically broad, and emotionally substantial work, released by Fire in early 2023.
Born and raised in Utrecht, Holland, Annelotte de Graaf spent her teenage years setting aside earnings in anticipation of making an album. Temporary student life in Philadelphia during 2010 sparked her initial songwriting; upon returning to Holland she issued the folky EP Benjamin. She kept refining her material in the years that followed, issuing further EPs—Amber Arcades in 2013 and I Guess I'm Free But I Don't Know What That Means in 2014—while employed as legal aid for UN war crime tribunals and as an assistant at Holland's immigration center. Adopting the name Amber Arcades, she financed a trip to New York to collaborate with producer Ben Greenberg of the Sacred Bones band the Men. There she recorded her home-written Utrecht songs with musicians from Quilt, namely guitarist Shane Butler and bassist Keven Lareau, plus Real Estate drummer Jackson Pollis, resulting in a sound shaped by Stereolab and Broadcast. Heavenly Records responded by signing Amber Arcades and releasing the five-song Patiently EP in October 2015; the full-length Fading Lines appeared in June 2016. Later that year the band reconvened with Greenberg in N.Y.C. during a U.S. tour to cut the five-song EP Cannonball, issued in June 2017 and featuring a dream pop reinterpretation of Nick Drake's "Which Will" along with guest vocals from Bill Ryder-Jones.
For the second Amber Arcades album De Graaf initially envisioned a lo-fi yet simultaneously lush and arranged aesthetic. She began tracking with a small ensemble in Los Angeles under producer Chris Cohen of Deerhoof, then brought the material to Spacebomb Studios in Virginia, where producer Trey Pollard contributed strings and horns. Heavenly issued the finished European Heartbreak in September 2018.
Following her relocation from Utrecht to Amsterdam, de Graaf started planning a third album. She reunited with original collaborator Ben Greenberg for remote sessions that incorporated shoegaze, alternative rock, and downbeat trip-hop textures, enlisting drummer Matt Chamberlain, known from Smashing Pumpkins, to add rhythmic force. The resulting Barefoot on a Diamond Road stands as Amber Arcades' most dramatic, stylistically broad, and emotionally substantial work, released by Fire in early 2023.
Albums
Singles
