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 2017 she signed to Bjork’s label One Little Independent and released a mini album ‘Sketches’ in August. ‘Sketches’ is an acoustic solo piano album comprising of 10 tracks. Six of these are reworkings of tracks from ‘Escapement’ and ‘Feathers’, the other four are arrangements of new tracks from the then forthcoming album ‘Resolve’.
Resolve was released in February 2018. Again largely piano and violin based, it more heavily featured guest instrumentalists for the first time – Manu Delago on hang, Mike Lesirge on flute and clarinets and Jo Quail on cello. ‘Resolve Reimagined’ followed in 2019 featuring remixes from Max Cooper, Hidden Orchestra, Hauschka and others.
In 2020 Poppy released her first sheet music book featuring the tracks from the solo piano album ‘Sketches’.
In 2021, Poppy 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.
Poppy 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 and has been nominated for a BAFTA this year. 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. Poppy is a member of Joe Acheson’s live project Hidden Orchestra and has worked on numerous projects with other musicians, artists, filmmakers, animators, dancers and actors.