Baba Yaga's Hut Presents: LEYA + damsel Elysium at IKLECTIK, October 1st 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.” \--- damsel Elysium is the mediator of Daēdah, a storm chaser, hypnagogic architect, and augur. Their main purpose is to bear witness, mediate and activate through mythos-making, welding with sound, light, subtle energy and embodied strategic dream blue prints. Their dedication to working with the foundational elements of fire, earth, water and air, they alchemise and draw attention to minute details and initiate alternative realities. They collaborate with nature and the manmade becoming a vessel for metaphysical expression and the performative object. Their craft draws from somatic technique and anti-colonial theory, constantly evolving and learning. Through performance, film and object crafting, they explore the boundaries of ritual and movement as preverbal communication, unravelling truths and stories that only amalgamate between space, finding rhythm in air and transforming it. Their first record released on AD 93, and through sonic mediums, they play with the seismic and the meteorological, creating maximalist tension through traditional instruments such as the violin, double bass, clarinet, piano and cello. More recently their voice has fuelled their work, using the voice as an instrument of phonetical discovery.