Capturing the same bewitching melancholy and ethereal drama that possessed some of the great English folk artists of the 1960s and '70s, New Zealander Aldous Harding has marked herself out as a uniquely haunting songwriter since arriving on the scene in 2014. Born in the town of Lyttleton in the South Island, Aldous Harding's parents were both singers and she began picking on a nylon-stringed parlour guitar at the age of eight before featuring on her mother Lorina Harding's album Clean Break in 2005. Inspired by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake and Karen Dalton she wrote her first song when she was 15, and after accompanying her songwriting school friend Nadia Reid to gigs as emotional support, began performing with the string band The Eastern and working with producer Ben Edwards and guitarist Delaney Davidson. Aldous Harding also caught a break when pop songwriter Anika Moa saw her busking and invited her to open for her, after which she went on to release her self-titled debut album on the small independent label Lyttleton Records. A committed performer, Aldous Harding's songs have been described as 'gothic fairytales' and are filled with death, religion and heartbreak and delivered with a soaring, antiquated vocal style. It led to her touring the US with Deerhunter and signing a deal with UK label 4AD before her second album Party was recorded with PJ Harvey's producer/collaborator John Parish in 2017 and won acclaim for Aldous Harding's emotionally wrought, mystical folk ballads and delicate, mesmerising aura. Later that year, she won two New Zealand Music Awards: Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Best Alternative Artist. In 2019, her third album Designer won the APRA Silver Scroll Award and was nominated for the 2020 Taite Music Prize. In 2022, she released Warm Chris, which became her first Number 1 album in her home country. It was followed by her fifth full-length, Train on the Island, released in May 2026.
