Kate Simko and her ensemble London Electronic Orchestra release ‘Center of Attention’.

Kate Simko and her ensemble London Electronic Orchestra embark on 2025 with the release of a new single ‘Center of Attention’.

Composer, DJ, and electronic producer Kate Simko founded LEO along with fellow musicians from the Royal College of Music, fusing the talents of Valeria Clarke (Harp), Kamila Bydlowska (Violin) and Zara Hudson (Cello), and bringing classical music’s rich timbres to the forefront of Simko’s intricate electronic productions.

‘Center of Attention’ is sculpted with the same organic motion and radiant spectrum of harp and strings that has become London Electronic Orchestra’s signature sound. Gradually, deeper and more sonorous tones — including the vocals of Canada’s Voytek Korab (of My Favorite Robot) — are introduced, creating an intimate composition intended to be as ominous as wondrous.

Every bit as ornate and meditative that fans have come to expect from the all-female London-based string ensemble, ‘Center of Attention’ provides the creative inspiration for The Royal Ballet’s Marianna Tsembenhoi’s passionate solo dance, choreographed by Hannah Grennell. Directed by Morgan White, the music video was filmed at the Royal Opera House, London and will be released soon.

The pioneering project that for several formative years fused Kate’s classical background with her roots in Chicago house and electronic music, culminated in the release of a highly anticipated debut album. The 2016 eponymous LP, released via The Vinyl Factory also included reworks of The XX and Parra For Cuva, plus collaborations with Jamie Jones and Katy B.

The album boldly succeeded in breaking unchartered experimental terrain for Simko and led to a number of groundbreaking live shows at some the most respected venues and settings including the Roundhouse, the Royal Albert Hall, The Jazz Cafe, and the National Gallery in London, (le) Poisson Rouge (New York), The Old Town School of Folk Music (Chicago), Heart Ibiza, and at festivals including Latitude, Bestival, WOMAD, Wonderfruit in Thailand, and Festival No 6.

Introducing dizzying vocal emotionality, ‘Center of Attention’ represents Kate Simko’s first London Electronic Orchestra single of 2025 and revels in the tension between elegance and disquiet, subverting many of the typecast moods associated with their chosen instruments.

The new single pairs with the recently released single ‘Masquerade”, the ensemble’s first recorded music in almost a decade, also visually accompanied by a Royal Ballet choreographed music video by Hannah Grennell. Both music videos were made possible via a research grant from the Royal College of Music, where Kate is a professor of Composition for Screen.

Examining a hybrid electronic and orchestral sound from seemingly every angle, London Electronic Orchestra by its very core mission it is an overt statement of the space created from the relationship of meticulously rendered orchestral beauty and the spontaneity experienced through Simko’s long career as an underground DJ.

Significantly, ‘Center of Attention’ proves why London Electronic Orchestra is much less about forcing either genre into fragile uncharted space and more about freely innovating in at an exciting musical meeting spot they genuinely helped create.