Biography
Aldous Harding is the performing name of Hannah Sian Topp, a singer-songwriter born in Auckland and raised in Lyttelton (near Christchurch) and later the small town of Geraldine. The daughter of Canadian folk singer Lorina Harding, she made her recording debut at 13, co-writing a track on her mother’s 2004 album Clean Break. She taught herself guitar at 18 and began busking on Christchurch streets, where she was spotted by Adam McGrath and invited to join Americana collective The Eastern, touring with them for two years and opening for acts including Old Crow Medicine Show and Fleetwood Mac.
After leaving The Eastern she adopted the stage name Aldous Harding — inspired by author Aldous Huxley and her own family name — and began recording with producers Ben Edwards and Marlon Williams in Lyttelton. Her self-titled debut was released in 2014 on Lyttelton Records to strong reviews, establishing her as a distinctive voice in New Zealand gothic folk. Spare and unsettling, it drew comparisons to Kate Bush and Scott Walker and was later reissued internationally through Spunk Records.
Harding’s sound resists easy classification. Her vocal delivery shifts across registers — from intimate folk balladeer to theatrical chanteuse to spectral soprano — and her lyrics are cryptic and associative, steeped in dark imagery and emotional obliqueness. Her second album Party (2017), produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse) and released on British independent label 4AD, announced her to international audiences. She appeared on BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland and won the Taite Music Prize in 2018.
Harding is her own woman, an arresting vocalist whose mannered deliveries — from chanteuse to jazzy — and intense themes defy obvious influence.
Kitty Empire, The Observer
Her third album Designer (2019), again produced by Parish and recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth and Playpen Studio in Bristol, deepened her reputation for surrealist pop precision. The single “The Barrel” — an uncanny, hypnotic piece built around stark vocal repetition — won the 2019 APRA Silver Scroll, New Zealand’s most prestigious songwriting award, beating finalists including Benee, Tiny Ruins, and The Beths. H. Hawkline (Welsh musician Huw Evans) contributed to the album and became a long-term collaborator and partner.
Shifting moods and voices effortlessly, Harding is an often technically astonishing performer, and Party is a work of quiet power.
Rob Mesure, musicOMH
Harding relocated to Cardiff, Wales with H. Hawkline around 2020. Her fourth album Warm Chris (2022), recorded live to tape at Rockfield Studios with contributors including Seb Rochford and Sleaford Mods vocalist Jason Williamson, became her first New Zealand number one. It received widespread critical acclaim, earning four stars from The Guardian and an 8.2 from Pitchfork. A fifth album, Train on the Island, is due in May 2026.
Members
- Aldous Harding (vocals / guitar, Aldous Harding, The Eastern)
Discography
- Aldous Harding [Vinyl] (2014, Lyttelton Records, LR-006)
- Party [CD] (2017, 4AD, 4AD0008CD)
- Designer [Vinyl] (2019, 4AD, 4AD0102LP)
- Warm Chris [Vinyl] (2022, 4AD, 4AD0391LP)