“Wonderful” – The New York Times

“Poppy Ackroyd can conjure whole worlds of sound out of the barest essentials” – Stereogum

“On par with neo-classical giants Nils Frahm, Max Richter and Hauschka” – MOJO

Poppy Ackroyd is a composer from London. Classically trained on violin and piano, she makes music by manipulating and multi-tracking sounds from these two instruments.

Her debut album ‘Escapement’ was released in December 2012 and a DVD – ‘Escapement Visualised’ – featuring bespoke visuals by Tom Newell (Lumen) for each track on the album, was released in September 2014.

‘Feathers’, her second album, followed in November 2014, and builds on the concept behind her debut, with most of the sounds again coming from the violin and the piano, however this time the tracks also feature other keyboard and string instruments – including harpsichords, clavichords, harmoniums, pianinos and cello.

In 2021, Ackroyd returned with her fourth full length album ‘Pause’; which saw acclaim from the likes of The Times, Stereogum, Clash Magazine, The Line Of Best Fit, The Arts Desk, The Independent, Composer Magazine and more, praising the album’s intimacy and its effectiveness as a representation of the time it was written. Pause is a collection of 10 solo piano pieces and a sheet music book has also been released.

Pause Reworked followed in 2022. A four track EP reworking the more intimate ‘inside piano’ tracks from Pause and featuring layers of interactive melodies and countermelodies, bass and percussive elements from the piano, putting the emphasis on the dramatic tension of her soundscapes and furthering the narratives of her sonic adventures.

In 2023 Pause Reimagined was released featuring remixes by Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, Anne Muller, Hinako Omori and Christina Vantzou.

In 2025, Ackroyd released ‘Notes On Water’, a collaborative project completed during her father Norman Ackroyd’s final months and released shortly after his passing. The work combined Ackroyd’s music with her father’s final etching and served as both a
tribute and a means of processing loss through shared creative language.

In February 2026 Ackroyd announced her forthcoming album ‘Liminal’ which will come out on One Little Independent Records on June 5th. As with her previous releases, Ackroyd wrote, performed, recorded, mixed, and produced the album herself, with mastering by Matouš Godík and cover layout and design by Ruth Keating. Singles ‘The Unknown’, ‘For Those Who Wait’ and ‘Shimmer’ have already been released.

Written and recorded during a period of profound upheaval and transition, it marks a return to the core of Ackroyd’s practice, bringing piano and violin back together. For the first time since 2018’s ‘Resolve’, Ackroyd reunites these two instruments exclusively, with every sound on the album drawn from piano and violin alone. Melody, harmony, rhythm and texture are all extracted from the physical bodies of the instruments themselves, from bowed and plucked strings to percussive elements.
The return of the violin is central to the album’s expressive power – on first single ‘The Unknown’, sweeping violin lines rise and fall against a piano foundation. These tracks highlight the contrast between the piano’s percussive, grounding nature and the violin’s ability to float freely.

Ackroyd and filmmaker Ainslie Henderson won a ‘Best Animation’ BAFTA for their collaboration ‘Stems’, and their latest collaboration Shackle was awarded Best British Film at the London Animation Awards. A project with acclaimed director Jola Kudela became a short film for single ‘Trains’ which won 12 awards, including the Gold Movie Awards and South London Shorts. Most recently her music has been used by the New York City Ballet and the National Theatre.