Biography
Referring to her output as "movies for ears," Ela Orleans crafts spectral, oneiric experimental pop built from both electronic and acoustic sources. Her sample-heavy, lo-fi pieces—frequently built around Casio keyboards and vocals drenched in reverb—evoke spectral echoes of 1950s and 1960s pop while absorbing touchstones that stretch from Broadcast through Éthiopiques compilations to Bernard Herrmann film scores. Active at first inside the collage-pop outfit Hassle Hound across the 2000s, she launched her solo career in 2008. After early releases that drew praise, among them Lost (2009) and Mars Is Heaven (2011), she turned toward more polished, electronics-led albums such as 2016's Circles of Upper and Lower Hell while also scoring restored silent films.
Born in Oświęcim, Poland, in 1971, she relocated to Glasgow, Scotland, in 1997 and soon entered Hassle Hound, at first adopting the name Lizzy Swimmers. She shifted to Warsaw in 2000, where she started solo work, joined forces with Marcus Schmickler, and sustained ties to Hassle Hound, resulting in the 10" album Scaring the Grass in the Garden (2002) and a split EP with Oren Ambarchi's project Sun (2003). After arriving in New York City in 2004 she took part in several experimental and noise ventures, sharing stages with acts including Jackie-O Motherfucker, Kevin Shea, and Scarcity of Tanks. Hassle Hound joined Staubgold, which issued Limelight Cordial in 2006, yet the band ended in 2008; Staubgold later released their second album, Born in a Night, in 2010.
Orleans issued her first solo recordings in 2008 with the full-length CD-R Low Sun/High Moon on the Italian imprint Setola di Maiale. Her debut vinyl outing, the 2009 LP Lost on French label La Station Radar, earned notice from several independent music outlets. The same label also put out a collaborative CD-R with noise artist Skitter that year. A burst of activity followed in 2011: Night People released a split LP with kindred spirit Dirty Beaches, while two further Orleans albums appeared—M ars Is Heaven (co-issued by La Station Radar and Atelier Ciseaux) and NEO PI-R, the first of numerous titles on Clan Destine Records.
She returned to Glasgow by late 2011. The next year Clan Destine issued several further Orleans projects: the four-way split LP The Statement (shared with U.S. Girls, Slim Twig, and Dirty Beaches), the split mixtape 80 Minutes of Funk with Curt Crackrach, the double LP Tumult in Clouds, and the limited remix collection Ela and Thee Prophets, which featured reworkings by Dan Melchior, Os Ovni, The-Drum, and prior associates. In 2013 she began the experimental acid techno alias Tract and released another collaborative LP with Skitter, De Flechettes, again on Clan Destine.
Orleans toured Europe in 2014, supplied music for several independent films, and delivered a remix of new age pioneer Laraaji that surfaced on a 12" EP via All Saints. By year's end she finished the full-length Upper Hell alongside trip-hop producer Howie B, who issued the album on HB Recordings in 2015. That record was followed by the 25-track Circles of Upper and Lower Hell (the complete edition of Upper Hell), released by Night School in 2016. Commissions arrived for live scores to the silent films Lucky Star (1929) and Vampyr (1932) from the Glasgow Film Festival and Glasgow International Festival respectively. A limited seasonal item, Christmas Fell Away, appeared in 2017, while Movies for Ears—a survey of her most song-oriented early material—received a proper Night School release in 2019 after first circulating as a limited CD-R.
Born in Oświęcim, Poland, in 1971, she relocated to Glasgow, Scotland, in 1997 and soon entered Hassle Hound, at first adopting the name Lizzy Swimmers. She shifted to Warsaw in 2000, where she started solo work, joined forces with Marcus Schmickler, and sustained ties to Hassle Hound, resulting in the 10" album Scaring the Grass in the Garden (2002) and a split EP with Oren Ambarchi's project Sun (2003). After arriving in New York City in 2004 she took part in several experimental and noise ventures, sharing stages with acts including Jackie-O Motherfucker, Kevin Shea, and Scarcity of Tanks. Hassle Hound joined Staubgold, which issued Limelight Cordial in 2006, yet the band ended in 2008; Staubgold later released their second album, Born in a Night, in 2010.
Orleans issued her first solo recordings in 2008 with the full-length CD-R Low Sun/High Moon on the Italian imprint Setola di Maiale. Her debut vinyl outing, the 2009 LP Lost on French label La Station Radar, earned notice from several independent music outlets. The same label also put out a collaborative CD-R with noise artist Skitter that year. A burst of activity followed in 2011: Night People released a split LP with kindred spirit Dirty Beaches, while two further Orleans albums appeared—M ars Is Heaven (co-issued by La Station Radar and Atelier Ciseaux) and NEO PI-R, the first of numerous titles on Clan Destine Records.
She returned to Glasgow by late 2011. The next year Clan Destine issued several further Orleans projects: the four-way split LP The Statement (shared with U.S. Girls, Slim Twig, and Dirty Beaches), the split mixtape 80 Minutes of Funk with Curt Crackrach, the double LP Tumult in Clouds, and the limited remix collection Ela and Thee Prophets, which featured reworkings by Dan Melchior, Os Ovni, The-Drum, and prior associates. In 2013 she began the experimental acid techno alias Tract and released another collaborative LP with Skitter, De Flechettes, again on Clan Destine.
Orleans toured Europe in 2014, supplied music for several independent films, and delivered a remix of new age pioneer Laraaji that surfaced on a 12" EP via All Saints. By year's end she finished the full-length Upper Hell alongside trip-hop producer Howie B, who issued the album on HB Recordings in 2015. That record was followed by the 25-track Circles of Upper and Lower Hell (the complete edition of Upper Hell), released by Night School in 2016. Commissions arrived for live scores to the silent films Lucky Star (1929) and Vampyr (1932) from the Glasgow Film Festival and Glasgow International Festival respectively. A limited seasonal item, Christmas Fell Away, appeared in 2017, while Movies for Ears—a survey of her most song-oriented early material—received a proper Night School release in 2019 after first circulating as a limited CD-R.
Albums
