Finnish singer-songwriter and pianist Anni Pohto has released her long-awaited debut album, The Rising. The 18-track album features songs such as "everywoman", "Guidance", and "DEEP".

The Rising is a genre-bending album, bringing the listener through an immersive soundscape. The album's influences include those of pop, indie, hip-hop, neo-classical piano, and West African rhythms. This versatile album is sure to bring the listeners through the highs and lows of life. 

For Anni Pohto, The Rising album was born from a profoundly intimate journey studying 

David R. Hawkins' Map of Consciousness. It explores the range of human consciousness through energy levels and emotions: every track on The Rising highlights a different emotion on this map, starting from the bottom, addressing shame, and rising up towards enlightenment, which Pohto visits in her closing track "The Way". Her songs resonate deeply across borders with people who keep asking questions about their internal and external world. 

Anni Pohto also has a master's degree in political science and does not shy away from addressing societal issues throughout this album. Pohto takes plenty of inspiration from her experiences as a woman in the music industry. Songs such as "My Smile is Not an Invitation" touch on her feminist ideals and push for women's empowerment. Both in and outside of the creative industries, she felt like always too much yet never enough, eventually losing the connection to her inner truth. According to the artist, she had to become a master of political science to understand that the problem wasn't within her but in the structures of modern life. The Rising album is a manifestation of reconnecting with the sacred creativity.

"By allowing myself to be healed and empowered through writing this album, I hope my listeners will find their own way from their darkness to light."

About Anni Pohto:

Anni Pohto is a Finnish singer, songwriter, pianist and producer, now living in London. She has worked with some of the biggest artists in Finland, and since her move to the UK has warmed-up for British band Scouting For Girls on their sold-out UK-tour in 2023. The music video for her song "33610" got an Honorary Mention at the Berlin Music Video Awards in 2024, and "everywoman" was placed as the opening theme for a Finnish TV-series "Suhde2".