Janel Leppin (born 1981)[1] is an American jazz and genre crossing cellist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and weaver who has toured as a soloist and accompanying artists internationally since 2004. She has presented her work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the ISSUE Project Room.[2]

Janel Leppin
Ensemble Volcanic Ash performing at Bohemian Caverns, led by Janel Leppin.
Ensemble Volcanic Ash performing at Bohemian Caverns, led by Leppin.
Born1981
Occupation(s)Cellist, composer
Musical career
GenresJazz, Experimental, avant-garde, modal jazz, free jazz, classical, ambient, rock, punk
Instrument(s)Cello, vocals, bass, keyboards
LabelsCuneiform Records
Websitejanelleppin.com
Cover artwork for Mellow Diamond, released 2012 is Leppin's first solo recording.
Janel Leppin, photographed by Shervin Lainez in 2016 in Brooklyn, NY.

Leppin released four solo recordings, The Brink (Shiny Boy, 2023), American God (2017), Mellow Diamond (2016), and Songs for Voice and Mellotron (2016). She collaborates as part of Janel and Anthony with her husband, American guitar player Anthony Pirog.[3] Recordings of her work as a composer and side musician appear on Sacred Bones, Bella Union, Touch, Tzadik, Sub Pop, Editions Mego, Sister Polygon, Dischord Records, Ideologic Organ and Cuneiform Records. Her work has experimental, avant-garde, jazz, free jazz, classical, ambient and rock influences.[4]

Janel and Anthony

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Leppin records in a cello and guitar duo with Anthony Pirog as Janel and Anthony.

New Moon in the Evil Age (Cuneiform Records, 2024) is a double album with one half instrumental works and vocal works on the second half.

Where is Home was released by Cuneiform Records, in 2012.

The duo released a self-titled and self-released recording in 2007. A Fifth Anniversary Collectors Edition LP was released of the duo in 2010.

"Janel & Anthony - guitars and cello respectively - play a haunting and humbly virtuosic form of music wherein the elements of electronics, looping, and lo-fi timbres live both in intimacy and in majesty in the same house as acoustic instruments and folk/blues-inspired melodies. As such, it is both timely and timeless, drenched as it is in intoxicating atmosphere; wan, quiet voices submitting to waves of sonic drama. Who could possibly resist it?" – Nels Cline,

"..one of the most stunning records this year.. Where is Home is a mind-blowing record that will stay in my listening rotation for years." - Sound Colour Vibration,

"Ethereal..conversational magic" - The Village Voice, "A beguiling, thoughtfully crafted album" - BBC Classical

 
Songs for Voice and Mellotron by multi-instrumentalist and composer, Janel Leppin at the Wilderness Bureau in 2016.

Solo Recordings

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Leppin performing live on the M4000D.

The Brink (Shiny Boy, 2023) is Leppin's first solo cello recording and was performed live without overdubs.

An album for voice and cello called American God, was released in April 2017. This album continues with political themes, as Leppin put it together with the 2016 Presidential Election in mind.[5]

In April 2016, Leppin released two solo recordings; Mellow Diamond and Songs for Voice and Mellotron.

Originally titled Songs of the One-Armed Woman; Songs for Voice and Mellotron was written in 2015, when Leppin injured her right elbow and was unable to perform solo concerts on her primary instrument, the cello.[6] The EP-length recording includes politically-charged music. Most tracks were recorded live with Leppin singing and playing the M4000D (mellotron) simultaneously, with very little overdubbing.[7]

Leppin's first solo recording, Mellow Diamond, draws far and wide from avant-garde pop to ambient music. She recorded vocals, analog synthesizers, harpsichord, pedal steel, cello, mellotron, found sound samples, and radio frequencies. Several political messages are found in the work.

"Art Holds Her Hand, a funereal paced and sombre death march, atop which Janel’s lilting ice maiden tones lull us into the land of Morpheus with impressionistic tales of the primal forces of Nature." - Roger Trenwith

"Instrumental intimacy swept up in arrangements that cluster around her voice, as delicate and as imposing as a sheet of falling ice.” NPR Music[8]

Jazz Works

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Leppin leads Ensemble Volcanic Ash and has two recordings on Cuneiform Records; Ensemble Volcanic Ash was released in 2022 and Ensemble Volcanic Ash: To March Is To Love in 2024. This jazz group has included harp, cello, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, guitar, bass and drums. The group was premiered before a sold-out crowd at the legendary Bohemian Caverns in Washington D.C. to rave reviews, being called "Aaah-vant Garde [sic] at its finest."[9] The ensemble has included Luke Stewart, Kim Sator, Sarah Hughes, Mary Lattimore, Kim Sator, Brian Settles, Anthony Pirog, Larry Ferguson, Amy Frasier, Jacqueline Poullaf, Betsy Wright and Jaimie Branch.

"It’s rare to encounter a recording with the kind of melodic richness delivered by the latest from Janel Leppin. The magic of the melodies on Ensemble Volcanic Ash is in both their voicing and their motion, behaving like a river that marks the path and carries passengers along by the force of its currents. The mix of chamber jazz, art rock, contemporary classical, and electronic music are merely facets through which the melodies becomes focused, like glass soaking in sunbeams and spitting it back out in a prismatic light show. I’m pretty addicted to this record, and don’t anticipate that waning any time soon; your results may vary—but I doubt it.""-Dave Sumner Bandcamp Daily[10]

Artist Album Instrumentation Label Year
Janel and Anthony New Moon in the Evil Age Cello, Keyboards, Vocals, Art, Photography, Lyrics, Composition Cuneiform Records 2024
Janel Leppin Ensemble Volcanic Ash: To March Is To Love Composer, Cellist, Arranger, Bandleader, Art Cuneiform Records 2024
Anthony Pirog The Hunger Artist Cello, Art Otherly Love 2024
Janel Leppin The Brink Cello, Composition, Art Shiny Boy 2023
Anthony Pirog Nepenthe Series I Producer, Pedal Steel Otherly Love 2023
Janel Leppin Ensemble Volcanic Ash Composer, Cellist, Arranger, Bandleader Cuneiform Records 2022
Susan Alcorn The Heart Sutra (arr. by Janel Leppin) Arranging, Curation, Conductor, Cello, Modified Cello, Cover Art Ideologic Organ/Editions Mego 2020
Janel Leppin, Susan Alcorn, Meghan Habibzai Sister Mirror Cello, Pedal Steel Guitar, Voice Atlantic Rhythms 2020
Anthony Pirog Pocket Poem Cover Art, Co-Production Cuneiform Records 2021
Janel and Anthony Where is Home Cello, Electronics, Voice, Voice, Mellotron, Harpsichord, Bowed and Struck Vibraphone, Prophet Five Synthesizer, Piano Cuneiform Records 2012
Janel and Anthony Janel and Anthony Cello, Keyboards, Voice Self Released, Cricket Cemetery 2007
Janel Leppin American God Voice, Cello, Electronics, Prophet 5 Synthesizer, Baby Grand CP70, Mellotron, Bass Drum WR 2017
Mellow Diamond Mellow Diamond Vocals, Cello, Koto, Pedal Steel, Arp 2600, Prophet 5 Synthesizer, Korg MS-20, Modular Synthesizer, Optigan, Mellotron, Mini Moog, Grand Piano, Upright Piano, Harpsichord, Bowed and Struck Vibraphone, Electronics, Drums, Bass, Guitar, Radio Frequencies, Footsteps, Record Collage, Struck Pan Lids, Tape Loops WR 2016
Mellow Diamond Songs for Voice and Mellotron Voice, Mellotron M4000D, Vibraphone, Electronics, Prophet 5 Synthesizer, Modular Synthesizer WR 2016


Also Appears On

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Artist Album Credit Label Year
Eyvind Kang Ajaeng Ajaeng Cello, modified cello, percussion Ideologic Organ/ Editions Mego 2020
Beauty Pill Please Advise Cello Northern Spy Records 2019
The Messthetics The Messthetics "The Weaver" Cello, arranging Dischord Records 2018
Marissa Nadler For My Crimes Cello, mellotron, string arranging Bella Union (UK), Sacred Bones (NY) 2018
Priests The Seduction of Kansas Bass, keyboards, vocals, co-production Sister Polygon Records 2018
Priests Nothing Feels Natural Pedal Steel, Cello Sister Polygon Records 2017
Orion Rigel Dommisse Omicron Cello What a Mess! Records (FR) 2014
Marissa Nadler Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton;

plays cello on "So Long and Far Away"

Cello Tompkins Square Label (SF) 2014
Laughing Man Be Black Baby Cello Bad Friend Records 2014
Rose Windows The Sun Dogs Cello, modified cello Sub Pop (WA) 2013
Oren Ambarchi Audience of One Cello Touch Records (UK) 2012
Eyvind Kang Visible Breath Cello, modified cello Ideologic Organ / Editions Mego (FR) 2012
Eyvind Kang Grass Cello Tzadik Records 2012
Anthony Pirog Trio/Sextet Cello Sonic Mass Records (DC) 2012
Anthony Pirog Trio/Sextet Cello Sonic Mass Records 2011
Skysaw Great Civilizations Cello Dangerbird Records (LA) 2009
Ignorant American Ignorant American Cello Sonic Mass Records 2009

“Nadler has enlisted some sturdy female clout for this record, including Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten for vocal cameos. Though it’s the multi-instrumentalist Janel Leppin who really shines, her strings meeting the tremor in Nadler’s voice in a way that at moments feels profound. In such company, and with a new strength to her songs, Nadler’s force has never seemed greater.” Four Stars - Q Magazine

References

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  1. ^ Richards, Chris. "Poised and prolific, Janel Leppin is just getting started". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
  2. ^ "Susan Alcorn in Residence | ISSUE Project Room". issueprojectroom.org. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  3. ^ Cohan, Brad. "Q&A: Janel And Anthony On D.C.'s Experimental Music Scene And Their New Record, Where is Home". Village Voice. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
  4. ^ Leppin. "Leppin Website". www.janelleppin.com. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  5. ^ Gotrich, Lars. "Cellist Janel Leppin Desperately Seeks Healing In Mellow Diamond's 'Ashes To Breathe'". NPR Music. NPR. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
  6. ^ "With One Textured Album And An EP Born From Pain, Janel Leppin Pushes On | Bandwidth". bandwidth.wamu.org. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  7. ^ "After A Four-Year Wait, Janel Leppin Debuts Two New Albums At Songbyrd". DCist. Archived from the original on 11 September 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
  8. ^ "NPR Music".
  9. ^ "Live review | Janel Leppin's Ensemble Volcanic Ash: 'Ahhh-vant garde' revelations -". CapitalBop. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  10. ^ "The Best Jazz on Bandcamp: July 2022". Bandcamp Daily. 27 July 2022. Retrieved 6 June 2024.