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Monica Richards, a native of Washington, D.C., is a musician/artist/poet/scholar. She met William Faith in 1992 when her band, Strange Boutique, opened for Shadow Project in Norfolk, VA. Faith and the Muse started in 1993 with Richards and Faith exchanging tapes while Richards was still living on the east coast. Shortly thereafter she moved to Los Angeles where the duo was based.

They recorded their debut album ‘Elyria’ in March 1994, following it in 1995 with the concept album ‘Annwyn, Beneath the Waves’, based around Welsh mythology. The band followed this up with an extensive touring schedule, playing with both guest musicians as a full line-up and as an acoustic duo – the latter tour documented on the ‘Vera Causa’ album in 2001. That album also featured a cover version of Running Up That Hill.

Their third album, ‘Evidence of Heaven’ (1999), marked the end of the first creative phase of Faith and the Muse. They then modernised both their image and their overall sound, the result appearing on their 2003 album ‘The Burning Season’. Their most recent efforts were 2009’s ‘Ankoku butoh’, a cd/dvd/book release, steeped in Japanese myth, sound and atmosphere. The tour was documented on the ‘Shoumei’ dvd, released a year later.

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