British indie folk artist Rachael Dadd makes music that blends beauty, joy, and adventure in equal measure. Her style has its roots in British folk traditions and adds a wealth of other influences, including D.I.Y. experimentalism, serialism, pastoral psychedelia, and electronic music, and the result communicates a playfulness and sense of wonder that complement her melodic sensibilities. Dadd's early efforts such as 2005's Summer/Autumn Recordings were straightforward acoustic sets. She explored more adventurous and richly layered arrangements on albums like 2011's Bite the Mountain. With 2019's Flux and 2022's Kaleidoscope, her work matured into a fusion of acoustic and electric elements that explored greater dynamics while maintaining the gentle spirit at the heart of her songs.

Rachael Dadd was born and raised in Bristol, in South West England. Her parents were music fans, and when she was seven years old, she was given a small keyboard and took to it eagerly, teaching herself to play. A few years later, the family got a piano, and without formal lessons she worked out chords and melodies. When she was 13, she heard Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes and was drawn into the emotional power of the music; she saw Amos perform, and the star offered her young fan encouragement and a kiss on the cheek. Other female songwriters, including Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, and PJ Harvey, would also influence her, and while studying for her A-levels, her teacher broadened her musical horizons. At school, Dadd was introduced to composer John Tavener, who was a guest lecturer in her class; she also created experimental music, performed at student jazz concerts, and studied the work of 20th century composers such as John Cage and Steve Reich. Reich's serialist pieces would prove to be especially influential, as she embraced his marriage of rhythm and melodies. She would also explore electronic music, and the work of artists such as Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and Broadcast would inform her work.

Dadd began her recording career in 2005 with a pair of albums, a self-released collaboration with the Missing Scissors, Songs from the Crypt, and a solo effort, Summer/Autumn Recordings, issued by Cleaner Records. In 2007, she brought out The World Outside Is in a Cupboard, also on Cleaner, and the Japanese label Angel's Egg approached her about releasing Summer/Autumn Recordings in Japan. Dadd's work with Japanese artists led to an arrangement where she spent half of each year living and working on an island in the Hiroshima prefecture, writing and performing music and making textile art. While in Japan, she met ICHI, an experimental musician from Nagoya; in time, the two would become musical collaborators and also marry; they spent their time between England and Japan. 2008 brought another self-released album from Dadd, After the Ant Fight, and in 2010 she made her debut on the Broken Sound label with Moth in the Motor, a limited-edition six-song EP. 2011's Bite the Mountain was a full album recorded with ICHI and a group of Japanese musicians.

2014's We Resonate, Dadd's first release for the French label Talitres, was a mix of folk and experimental influences that was recorded in part in the studio and in part in sessions at her home in Bristol. 2019's Flux was a one of her strongest and most studio-savvy releases to date, and included contributions from Portishead bassist Jim Barr, vocalists Kate Stables and Rozi Plain of This Is the Kit, and multi-instrumentalist Emma Gatrill, known for her work with Matthew and the Atlas and Willie Mason. It was also Dadd's first North American release, with a U.S. edition brought out by Memphis Industries. In May 2022, the EP Flux Alchemy, Pt. 1 featured remixes of six songs from Flux as reimagined by a variety of artists; a second volume appeared a month later. During the lockdowns necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dadd was a contributor to a traveling art project, the Super Cool Drawing Machine, that raised money for shuttered independent venues, and she wrote songs while creating visual art with her sewing machine. The material she penned would form the basis of Kaleidoscope, released in October 2022, which she described as one of her most personal works yet. The LP was produced by Rob Pemberton, who'd previously worked with U.K. indie folk act the Staves. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi