Cleo Reed

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A student of Black underground sound and intention, Cleo Reed (née Ella Josephine Julia Moore) is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice uses participatory art, music composition, instrument-making, bandleading, installation, and fabric arts. Raised in Uptown NYC and DC, Reed’s history with music starts with classical training in percussion at Harlem School of the Arts, to playing guitar and songwriting in the influential New York punk band Pretty Sick, to studying sound engineering and sound design at Berklee College of Music. Since releasing their debut album Root Cause in 2023—including a limited physical release with Vinyl Me, Please—Reed has emerged as a bold, rising talent, forging forward while staying firmly rooted in their ancestral and cultural lineage. Reed’s sophomore LP CUNTRY (out July 17, 2025) is a sprawling folk-electronic offering exploring the rage that comes with grappling with the grips of labor — both on the body and in the American workplace.