Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows (Latin: sopor aeternus "eternal slumber"), founded in 1989 at Frankfurt, Germany.

The main, and then the only resident member was Anna-Varney Cantodea – a singer, a songwriter, the heart and soul of the band.

This story began in 1960-s. Since the start the life of Anna-Varney wasn’t simple. To begin with, she was born a boy. By five she understood that nature had confused something. Weird behavior of their son, who preferred to resemble a girl in every way, has scared the parents, but the old Nordic tempering doesn’t acknowledge sentimentality and heart-to-heart talk. A daily portion of didactic beating should have solved the problem. Nevertheless Anna-Varney remained loyal to the ideals of transgender, while constant mockery from others and assaults from parents made her consider suicide at 12 for the first time.

Self-hate and rending internal contradictions became a strong stimulus for creating music. And when the world was waiting for a change and the Berlin wall had collapsed under the head of freedom-loving public spirit, in one of the bars in Frankfurt Anna-Varney met Holger. They were both into Goth and darkwave, and that’s how the project Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows came to life. The band consists of Anna-Varney and the spirits, which whisper to her the kind of music she needs to record.

Anna-Varney Cantodea stated that she does not perform live "in front of humans".

More Info: www.cablook.com