Dr Inga Liljeström is an Australian–Finnish composer, vocalist and interdisciplinary artist whose work weaves together haunting vocals, atmospheric sound design and cinematic songwriting into richly immersive worlds. Across six acclaimed solo albums, her music has continually reinvented itself, from Nordic-inspired string arrangements and electronic textures to stark desert folk, art rock and experimental soundscapes. Whether composing songs, creating sound for film and public art, or performing live, her work is united by a fascination with the emotional and transformative possibilities of the human voice.

Recently completing a PhD exploring the creative muse and the ways composers and songwriters understand their sources of inspiration, Inga is equally at home in research and artistic practice. A self-taught instrumentalist, she uses her home recording studio as an extension of the compositional process, creating music that blurs the boundaries between song, sound art and sonic landscape.

In the 1990s, she composed and performed with the art rock group Helgrind before embarking on a solo career.

Her solo work led to performances at Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival and Sydney Opera House Studio before she relocated to Europe, where she spent 14 years based in France, forming a band, recording albums and releasing music on European labels.

Her European performances included festivals such as Wrocław Impart Festival (Poland) and Colours of Ostrava (Czech Republic), alongside performances throughout France, Italy, Switzerland, Finland and the UK. Along the way she collaborated with artists including d.i.g. (Directions in Groove), Gerling, The Church, Cameron Undy’s Kidzen, American producer Carmen Rizzo, and created remixes for Gotye and the FourPlay String Quartet. She also toured South America as singer and actor in Paradise City, the acclaimed physical theatre production by Branch Nebula, co-composing the score with award-winning producer and sound designer Bob Scott.

In addition to her solo work, Inga has contributed vocals to film and television projects including Blood Brothers (ABC), Rake (ABC), The Kettering Incident (BBC) and promotional work for Dracula (Sky TV). Her compositions have featured in film, television and nature documentaries, including the award-winning Wild Antarctic by Galaxiid.

Her music has also become an integral part of large-scale public art. She composed the score for Light Origami by Japanese artist Masakazu Shirane, an internationally touring installation presented at VIVID Sydney, Scottsdale Light Festival (Arizona) and Singapore Night Festival. More recently, she composed the music for Circles of Rhythm at VIVID Sydney 2026.

Her artistic practice has been supported through numerous grants, including research into yoik, the traditional vocal music of the Sámi people, which has deeply informed her own approach to voice and composition, and the creation of the music film Paris, She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not, exploring the hidden histories of the French capital.

Collaboration continues to play a central role in her creative practice. Highlights include the album We Have Tigers with award-winning film composer Michael Lira, and the experimental drone-based recording Of Stars and Stones with multi-instrumentalist and producer Leigh Ivin, two instrumental tracks from which featured in the television series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.

Currently, Inga performs as a solo artist, creating immersive performances for voice, electric guitar, live looping, samples and projection. Drawing audiences into evocative sonic landscapes, her work inhabits the space between concert, installation and ritual.

She is also a certified sound therapist and facilitates regular sound immersions.

THE STORY:

I have always felt drawn to the landscapes of my Finnish heritage. Ice, forests, northern skies and the melancholy beauty of Scandinavian music have found their way into my compositions as naturally as the rivers, birds and mountains of my childhood in Bellingen, Australia. Much of my work exists somewhere between these two worlds.

I’ve always been inspired by visuals and film, and my music has been described as aural landscapes.  My style is quite diverse, with each album exploring new terrain, from cinematic nordic landscapes to dry arid desert.

I was brought up in a very alternative environment, and my formative years were spent creating, swimming and being a wild child in ‘The Promised Land,’ Bellingen, N.S.W. Australia. Our home was surrounded by rivers, mountains, huge Moreton Bay fig trees, early morning mists, horses, dogs – nature at it’s best and wildest.  Music was always playing in our house – Rolling Stones, Melanie Safka, Nick Drake, John Martyn, Maddy Prior from Steeleye Span, Blondie…

I started writing poetry when I was a young, and loved daydreaming, drawing, and making up stories. I was schooled at first with two other children in a hall by a river, and it was a very creative way to start learning. It provided a foundation in doing things my own way when it came to anything creative.

The first concert I went to was Melanie Safka when I was around 7 years old. I was enamoured with her songs and voice and would be covered in goose bumps when lying on the lounge, listening. The concert was all very exciting, I remember her on stage, the red velvet curtains, her dark hair, her smile and long skirt, the screaming of the audience…and then I fell asleep, overcome by excitement. Melanie had lunch with a girlfriend of mine recently, and I did a cover of her song ‘Some Say I Got Devil’ which my friend played to her…full circle!

My mum and I joined an alternative religious community when I was 10, and I was given a classical guitar which I fell in love with, and I would spend my lunchtimes at school teaching myself to play. I would also sing with the church band, and my mum was the leader of the tambourine players. This was my foundations for vocal improvisation – ‘speaking in tongues’.

In high school, I stared playing bass in a rock band with my friends. I had no idea how to play but would just learn my parts. Then I started playing jazz, still not really knowing what I was playing or doing, but performed with some great jazz players. One time I felt like I channelled, as everyone was doing a solo, and mine was coming up, I began to sweat as I had no idea what I’d do, when all of the sudden my fingers started flying around the neck of the bass in double time doing all sorts of miraculous lines!

I studied music at University focusing on singing and fell in love with the greats – Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, Nina Simone. I formed a duo with the guitar lecturer Jim Kelly, singing jazz standards. I graduated from Southern Cross University in Australia with a BA and Honours in Performing Arts, specialising in vocals.

After University, I collaborated with a film composer and formed a group called ‘Helgrind’, full of angst and beauty, described as Led Zeppelin meets Tori Amos. We wore 50s bathing costumes with biker boots, old platinum blonde wigs and the men in old nylon 50s nighties. I remember one record executive yelling at us over the phone ‘you make me feel like I don’t understand music’. For us at the time it was a compliment.

I began composing and arranging music as a solo artist, experimenting with orchestral strings, electronic beats, and synths.  This work is heard on on my first solo album, ‘Urchin,’ which was self released and funded by an Australia Council grant.

After this I worked on a more ambitious album, also funded by a grant. It resulted in my first commercially released album’Elk,’ released through Groovescooter records, who I continued to have a wonderful relationship with for many years and many releases.

‘Elk’ was inspired by Northern landscapes, fjords, and magical isolated places, endeavouring to create these landscapes with the instrumentation using strings, double bass, beats, and electronic bleeps, and I envisioned the weave of stories and characters being created with lyrics and melodies. I formed a wonderful band to play this music, including Cameron Undy, (double bass) ; Veronique Serret, (violinist) ; Haydn Walker (guitarist and string arranger); and Evan Mannell (drums). Some shows were quite big and theatrical with dancers, aerialists, circus performers, flamenco dancers, and live VJ projections.

I released a DVD called ‘Ra Djur’, a collection of eleven clips made by Australian film makers to my songs, including Andrew Wholley, Tanya Andrea Stadellman, Jacob Simkin, David Davidson and Paul Andrew, Daniel Kojta, Matthew, Matthew Chuang. I received another grant for this, and also a remix album called ‘Sprawling Fauns’, featuring remixes by Ben Frost, Pimmon, Saddleback (Tony Dupe) and Brokn (Jacob Cook).

‘Urban street-style meets dance, a skater, a break-dancer, a BMX rider, an acrobat, a dancer and a singer converge at a meeting in a stark urban space’ described the physical theatre/ dance show I was in called ‘Paradise City’, directed by the Helpmann award winning group, Branch Nebula. I played the fallen diva, singing the inner thoughts of the performers. We toured Brazil, South America and regional Australia for a few months, and had a season at the Opera House. I worked on the music with Bob Scott, with a wonderful (and slightly nerve wracking) finale of improvised cascading vocal loops for the final scene.

Another project ‘Quiet Music for Quiet People’ was recorded over two nights in a Sydney studio by engineer, Andy Hills. The music was completely improvised, featuring double bass, pedal steel guitar, drums, sound scapes, cello and me flicking though some old diaries finding words to sing. I described a scene to the musicians of a desert scape at night, romance, heat, a scene from a David Lynch film of a girl dancing on the bonnet of an old car under the stars…we’d then turn the lights out and try to recreate these images.

I travelled to Paris a few times and was signed to a record label there, and formed a band to tour. We performed at venues and festivals in Poland, Czech Republique, France and Switzerland. The band recorded an album of my songs plus a few collaborative tracks, called ‘Black Crow Jane.’ We recorded the songs live in a house in Normandie over a few days. The crackling fire, wintery skeleton like trees, conversations I could barely understand with my limited French – all are precious memories in the making of the album…even me being the designated cook and failing repeatedly! The musicians were Guillaume Magne (guitar), Sebestian Brun (drums and sound scapes), Theo Girard (double bass), Jean-Philippe Feiss (cello), all captured on tape and then mixed by Olivier Gascoin.

In 2014 I released an album called ‘Two Dangers’, recorded in both the Blue Mountains, Australia, and in Paris, France. I had been writing songs on the back steps of my sisters house, serenading the currawong birds in the Blue Mountains. The recording of the album was very relaxed, where we’d set up in friends houses – lounge rooms, kitchens, and invite musicians to jam on the songs. Engineer John Kelly would capture these sessions with his portable recording set up. I was lucky enough to play with magical musicians Rens van der Zalm (guitar, mandolin, tenor guitar, accordion); Len Marks (slide and guitars) and Michael Bridges (violin and saw).  In France I recorded some more songs for this album with wonderful musicians and engineers-  Olivier Gascoin and Jonathan Reig, also recording in lounge rooms and in an old school. Many sounds of birds, bees, truck and trains were caught on the recording.

The album ‘We Have Tigers’, was a collaboration with award  winning film composer, Michael Lira. We raised money through a campaign to put the album out ourselves, and we signed with music label ‘Accord Croises.’  The album was recorded in our homes studios, with Michael in Australia, and me in France. Michael mixed the album and I made all the artwork.  It features both traditional songs, plus some originals, and Michael arranged and played a vast array instruments, inspired by old Appalachian folk music and the arranging of Ennio Morricone.

In 2020, after my father passed away, and we were in the grips of the COVID pandemic, Leigh Ivin (pedal steel, guitars, engineer) and I made a recording, with Leigh in Australia and me in the UK. We’d send each other the music files over the net, adding to each others ideas until complete. This resulted in the album ‘Of Stars and Stones.’

I’ve also worked with music, art and film students in Universities in both Finland and Australia, teaching the art of collaboration. This would result in multi-media performances of original music, film, art, and dance, which were performed in old cinemas, in underground carparks, or in large auditoriums with stages set up in different parts of the room for the performers. Students would make their own costumes, sets, projections, lighting designs – a great introduction to real life collaborative performance.

I also have an interest in the healing properties of sound and music, and studied  sound therapy with the Academy of Sound Healing based in Cornwall, UK. I’ve worked as a sound therapist with children, people with dementia, atypical hearing, and in corporate workplaces and taught sound therapy for many years.

Most recently I have been experimenting as a solo performer, playing electric guitar and effects, using a sampler to play strings and soundscapes. Anna Fraser, a wonderful creative director, and designer animated my collages resulting in a projection that is used at my shows. I’ve been loving this new chapter of performing alone…something about the freedom and the intimate nature of  stripped back instrumentation, the vulnerability of the voice…where the fear is, the joy lies.