Andria Degens, sole embodiment of Pantaleimon, was born on the 8th November in Caterham, Surrey, England and is descended from Dutch and Irish ancestry. She intuitively started playing and singing when she was a young child. In her own words, "I would play around with a little Casio or my acoustic guitar, working out tunes and riffs and I always had a soft spot for circularity. I used to record things on an old cassette recorder my dad gave me".
After many years working within the record industry (Tower Records, Mute Records, Tender Prey Management), and whilst in her early twenties, she took what she thought would be a brief trip around the globe, but it ended up lasting two and half years. During that journey she experienced an epiphany when another world opened up to her - "a world which had always been there for me, but which I had forgotten about". That world was the inspiration behind the music of Pantaleimon.
Her second album, Mercy Oceans, was released late in 2007. The space between the two albums was filled with the practice and teaching of yoga and meditation.
Andria says "after Trees Hold Time I felt I had nothing else to give to the world musically, but then in 2005 the floodgates opened and out of that came the material for Cloudburst and Mercy Oceans. All the words on Mercy Oceans came to me in one long stream of consciousness, I then had to look at the mass of words and decipher the individual songs. The music came in a similar way". 2007 also brought praise for the four track EP Cloudburst.
Andria has made guest appearances with the band Wire (live at the Clapham Grand), Dirty Three (Andria appears on Horse Stories), and with Current 93 (Black Ships Ate The Sky). Pantaleimon have also contributed music to Cam Archer's film Wild Tigers I Have Known, Susan Stenger's (Band of Susans) Soundtrack For An Exhibition, and projects by Irr. App. (Ext.), Nurse With Wound and Marc Pilley's Hobotalk.
Electronic Voice Phenomenon voted Pantaleimon's We Love video by Cam Archer as their ‘Video of the Week'.
Pantaleimon have not played live very often, but they have been honoured to play shows with Antony & the Johnsons, Baby Dee, Six Organs Of Admittance, Current 93, 16 Horsepower, Matt Sweeney and Bonnie "Prince" Billy.