LEYA, the American duo of harpist Marilu Donovan and vocalist/violinist Adam Markiewicz, creates work within a singular world. Through a lone LP, a cassette, three EPs, a mixtape, an adult film, and a flurry of collaborations, they have traced far corners of the international underground while gracing major fashion runways, the home page of PornHub, and institutions like MoMA and the Palais de Tokyo. Cohorts include Eartheater, Actress, Ecco2K, Brooke Candy, Sega Bodega, james K, Varg2TM, claire rousay, Okay Kaya, Chanel Beads, HTRK and many more.

Crafted of three basic elements - detuned harp (designed in a system by Donovan for the project), operatic yet beguiling vocals (delivered in an unlikely range by Markiewicz), and the enmeshment of his violin sound within those vocals, the duo has sought to explore as widely as possible with their language, creating work that continually defies what might seem possible. The New York Times has called it “the auditory equivalent of awakening in the fog of a bad dream only to discover you’re still trapped in the nightmare,” while The Guardian describes “a titanic feat … music that sounds simultaneously 300 years old and somewhere from the distant future.”