Leah Kardos is an Australian musician, writer, and academic based in London. She makes eclectic, mostly instrumental music that often explores a specific limitation, whether it be a single piano in Feather Hammer (2011), spam emails as lyrics in Machines (2013), the relationships between score and interpretation, composer and performer in Three Preludes (2013), or working with purely analogue instruments and technologies in Rococochet (2017). Bird Rib (2020), explores the reuse and reversal of previous compositions in the construction of new material.
Leah’s music foregrounds keyboards - piano, synths, and organs - while drawing from deep personal and cultural references: church bands, Hanon exercises, Debussy, The Beatles, Vangelis Her soundworlds often incorporate field recordings and found sounds to suggest narrative or place. Improvisation, chance procedures (like dice rolls and Oblique Strategies), and recurring melodic motifs form the backbone of her process. She cites Björk, Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Kate Bush, Aphex Twin, and David Bowie among her key influences.
Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 6 Music (UK), Triple J and Double J (Australia), and NPR (US). It has been performed by ensembles including the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Ruthless Jabiru, Curve Ensemble, and soloists such as R. Andrew Lee, Ben Dawson, and Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz. Her library music has appeared in major television productions (e.g. Masterchef, First Dates, Love Island, Panorama), and her string and orchestral arrangements feature in films and Netflix documentaries.
At Kingston University she lectures in music and music technology and leads the Visconti Studio, a research and recording facility co-founded with legendary producer Tony Visconti. In 2019 she founded the Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra - the only ensemble of its kind. Their debut album Stylophonika (2022), co-produced with Visconti, was released by Spun Out of Control in 2022. Live to Tape at Visconti Studio was released as a limited edition cassette in 2023.
Leah publishes music through Bigo & Twigetti, writes criticism for The Wire, and is the author of Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie (Bloomsbury, 2022). Her latest book, a 33 1/3 volume on Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love, was published in November 2024.
Leah’s music foregrounds keyboards - piano, synths, and organs - while drawing from deep personal and cultural references: church bands, Hanon exercises, Debussy, The Beatles, Vangelis Her soundworlds often incorporate field recordings and found sounds to suggest narrative or place. Improvisation, chance procedures (like dice rolls and Oblique Strategies), and recurring melodic motifs form the backbone of her process. She cites Björk, Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Kate Bush, Aphex Twin, and David Bowie among her key influences.
Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 6 Music (UK), Triple J and Double J (Australia), and NPR (US). It has been performed by ensembles including the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Ruthless Jabiru, Curve Ensemble, and soloists such as R. Andrew Lee, Ben Dawson, and Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz. Her library music has appeared in major television productions (e.g. Masterchef, First Dates, Love Island, Panorama), and her string and orchestral arrangements feature in films and Netflix documentaries.
At Kingston University she lectures in music and music technology and leads the Visconti Studio, a research and recording facility co-founded with legendary producer Tony Visconti. In 2019 she founded the Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra - the only ensemble of its kind. Their debut album Stylophonika (2022), co-produced with Visconti, was released by Spun Out of Control in 2022. Live to Tape at Visconti Studio was released as a limited edition cassette in 2023.
Leah publishes music through Bigo & Twigetti, writes criticism for The Wire, and is the author of Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie (Bloomsbury, 2022). Her latest book, a 33 1/3 volume on Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love, was published in November 2024.