Janel Leppin

Janel and Anthony

Leppin recorded two albums with Anthony Pirog as "Janel and Anthony": one self-titled and self-released recording in 2007, and Where is Home, released by Cuneiform Records in 2012. A Fifth Anniversary Collectors Edition LP was released of the duo, recorded in 2010. In March 2016, they released the single "Sweet and Sour," and announced their forthcoming album, Glover Park.

In February 2016, Leppin started a label called Wedderburn Records which released "music which has a magical or mystical essence". The label's first release was "Sweet and Sour" by Janel and Anthony, followed by Leppin's first two solo albums Mellow Diamond and Songs for Voice and Mellotron. Leppin plans to release solo work by female artists including American pedal steel guitar legend, Susan Alcorn and DC avant pop vocalist, Adriana Lucia-Cotes.

Solo Recordings

In April 2016, Leppin released two solo recordings. For the first album titled, Mellow Diamond, Leppin drew from far and wide, from avant-garde pop to ambient style. She recorded analog synthesizers, a harpsichord, pedal steel, a cello, mellotron, found sound samples, and radio frequencies. Several political messages are found in the work, notably in "Belly of the Beast" which is about living in Washington D.C., "No Treaty" and "Cast in Gold".

The second album, originally titles Songs of the One-Armed Woman, Songs for Voice and Mellotron was written in 2015, when Leppin injured her right elbow and was unable to perform solo concerts on her primary instrument, the cello. The EP-length recording includes politically-charged music, such as "Paris", calling for people to remember all deaths from terrorist attacks after the deaths in Paris in 2015. "[T]hese deaths are all wrong from Paris to Palestine" and calling attention to the possible effects of American drone strikes. "[O]ur drone war is unfolding, spilling blood on all soil." The second track, "In A Dream", is a work about global warming - "the rich sirens scream, as totems rise from the sea. Ivy crawls where ice used to be and life becomes a long-lost melody." Most tracks were recorded live with Leppin singing and playing the M4000D (mellotron) simultaneously, with very little overdubbing.

Jazz Works

Ensemble Volcanic Ash is Leppin's avant-jazz chamber group, including harp, bassoon, cello, and alto saxophone. The group was premiered before a sold-out crowd at the legendary Bohemian Caverns in Washington D.C. to rave reviews, being called "Aaah-vant Garde [sic] at its finest." The ensemble has been joined by Sarah Hughes, Mary Lattimore, Amy Bormet, Amy Frasier, Jacqueline Poullaf, Betsy Wright, Jaimie Branch.