The first Simon Bookish album, Unfair / Funfair, is 20 years old this year. I have a lot of feelings about it, and I'm thinking of writing about it in greater depth at some point. For now though, if you’d like to hear it, it's available on Bandcamp here: leochadburn.bandcamp.com/album/unfair...

Live at legendary club Trash, 2004.

Live with Abstruckt percussion ensemble 10 years ago, performing some angry songs I made for the occasion: "you can't reform profit capitalism; just kick it, kick it till it breaks."

The moment in Roxy Music's Re-make/Re-model, where everyone in turn plays a *ridiculous* solo: a squiggle of noise, cluster chords, anachronistic Beatles quote, Ride of the Valkyries on sax. Introducing the band, absurdly. A genius way to open an album/career: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWNs...

I love Grace Jones (78 today!) so much: the drama of her voice, her superlative skills as a performer, her role as creator and subject of the most indelible images in music. I'd love to see her masterpiece music videos remastered and reissued (lots currently circulating on YouTube in very low-res).

David Munrow: what an amazing and inspiring musician. Great to see him getting some plaudits. A career cut short after only a decade, but he changed the direction of not just early music and musicology, but folk, prog, film music, music education and broadcasting. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/m...

Big fan of harpsichordist Jean Rondeau's playing. Listen to how beautiful this is... www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKCr...

The music download platform Subvert launched today. It's a cooperatively owned alternative to Bandcamp. I'm very interested in seeing how this kind of model works, so I've made my music available on it, here: www.subvert.fm/leo-chadburn

Throwback to 20 years ago today (10 May 2006): here's me onstage at the short-lived but brilliant London venue The Luminaire. The other acts on the bill that night were Grizzly Bear and Owen Pallett as Final Fantasy.

"Prince of Wales": song by me with lyrics by David Shrigley, originally released c.20 years ago. Part of 'Worried Noodles', a compilation album: Grizzly Bear, Max Tundra, David Byrne, et al setting Shrigley's words. The album is currently unavailable everywhere else. soundcloud.com/leochadburn/...

This feels like quite a heritage activity, but I've overhauled my website to make it more "archival", with programme notes, album lyrics, score excerpts, a whole load of press cuttings, and information about things I have worked on in the last 25 years - there's a lot:

I just found this photograph, taken by me c.1990, on a school trip to Sellafield. There was quite a lot of this kind of thing in my childhood. As I recall, its history as the site of the UK's worst ever nuclear accident wasn't mentioned.

(1/4) I'm still not sure many people release the full impact that Section 28 had on LGBT people growing up in the UK in the late 1980s / 1990s (such as me). This was Thatcher’s legislation banning "promotion of homosexuality" in schools and other institutions funded by local authorities.

If you haven't already heard my album 'Sleep in the Shadow of the Alternator', and you'd like to buy a copy, today is the ideal day, it being Bandcamp Friday... leochadburn.bandcamp.com/album/sleep-...

I've never given much thought to the work of Bridget Riley, which has always seemed a bit like trendy wallpaper to me, but I saw some images of this painting, "Vespertino" (1988), yesterday and I'm completely mesmerised by it. I'd really like to see the real thing somewhere...

Like a motorway journey, the landscape changes incrementally, but the hum of the engine remains constant. This piece by me, 'Freezywater', premiered 10 years ago this week. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUkl...

Kenneth Williams' 1963 reading of Gogol's 'Diary of a Madman' is on Radio 4extra this afternoon (part of a whole day of programmes to coincide with his centenary). It's an extraordinary performance: unexpectedly dreamlike, haunting. What a great dramatic actor he was. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

One of the things I love about the music of Iannis Xenakis is how “Xenaskissy” it can be. Unmistakeable, almost like he’s parodying himself sometimes. Who else would have written this? A little 5-minute cataclysm. Sounds like a fissure opening in the earth. Fantastic. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJMU...

Late to the party here, but I’m another fan of @leochadburn.bsky.social latest album: it’s swirling, mesmerising and I’m haunted by its stories of the Midlands - not far from where I grew up 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I don't want to say that music peaked in the early 1400s and it's all been downhill since then, but listen to how astonishingly beautiful this is (Bartolomeo da Bologna's 'Arte psalentes'): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4He_...

Experimental composer Leo Chadburn's album 'Sleep in the Shadow of the Alternator' transforms his childhood memories of Coalville's mines and factories into a dreamlike narrative about the East Midlands' vanished industry. Leo Chadburn Broadcasts a Radiophonic Lullaby of Industrial Decline:

If you’d like to buy any of my physical or download releases on Bandcamp, I’m having a modest January sale. Use the discount code newyear2026 (valid till the end of January) to get 25% off anything of mine... leochadburn.bandcamp.com

"The record Chadburn has been working towards for years, gloriously realised..." Thanks to Tim Rutherford-Johnson for putting my 2025 album in his top 10 releases of the year. Take a look at his other (impeccable) choices too, here: purlis.substack.com/p/purposeful...

A masterpiece, one for the ages, a truly monumental artistic creation & achievement, by @leochadburn.bsky.social "Sleep in the Shadow of the Alternator," self-released My favorite experimental/spoken word album of 2025 leochadburn.bandcamp.com/album/sleep-... Here's the review I wrote for WXDU

Tomorrow (Sunday 7th December), brilliant vocal ensemble The Marian Consort are performing "Flower Dictionary" by me, at Milton Court / The Barbican. This is its first performance in London. Gorgeous programme inspired by plants and nature. Tickets here: www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/202...

My album is # 24 in @thequietus.com's 100 albums of 2025. Thank you so much to all tQ writers who chose it! Do go and peruse the whole 100: as usual, the list highlights so many under-sung and brilliant records: thequietus.com/tq-charts/al...

Released 10 years ago today, my single-track EP "RED AND BLUE", an anxious collage of pop fragments, field recordings and synthscapes, reflecting on the 1980s UK-US political relationship. I've made it "Name Your Price" (i.e. free to download) on Bandcamp: leochadburn.bandcamp.com/album/red-an...

Really nice to be asked to appear on BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show over the weekend, to talk about three tracks I love as part of their new 'Listen List' spot. Listen again here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002lnkd I'm on at 46:05 into the show.

Strong recommend for Tim Rutherford-Johnson's new Substack (especially for "new music" people). Great, insightful writing, as always. First post delves into music by Mark Fell, Michael Finnissy and Me: purlis.substack.com/p/purposeful...

Wonderful and perceptive writing about "Sleep in the Shadow..." from Tim Rutherford-Johnson here, touching on place, Englishness and Russell Hoban... Thank you! johnsonsrambler.wordpress.com/2025/10/15/t...

"We’re in a world of haunted psychogeography here, all the more disturbing because it’s all real: the drones, the hum, Leo Chadburn’s voice, the bells, the recordings that sound like the actuality of a recent but imagined past…" www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Thanks so much for including me - a great list of last month's releases, as ever, from Peter Margasak here:

Experimental composer Leo Chadburn's album 'Sleep in the Shadow of the Alternator' transforms his childhood memories of Coalville's mines and factories into a dreamlike narrative about the East Midlands' vanished industry. Leo Chadburn Broadcasts a Radiophonic Lullaby of Industrial Decline:

I apologise for adding to the #BandcampFriday deluge, but if you'd like to buy my records, today is ideal. I know the very idea of paying for music is withering away these days, but as a 100% independent, DIY musician, your support is a big deal. I'm hugely thankful for it: leochadburn.bandcamp.com

Thanks to The Wire (500th issue published this week!) for these words about my new album:

Really nice that my new album is in amongst the best albums this month... thank you thank you!

ICYMI... an interview with me here about the new album (and other matters): www.thetonearm.com/leo-chadburn...

Thanks so much to The Tonearm for doing this interview with me, about the new album (out today), why the radio is important, the East Midlands, and a belated postscript to the Simon Bookish project: www.thetonearm.com/leo-chadburn...

This is a really excellent choice of records, notwithstanding one of them being by me. Also, Dale's new album is his best yet and you should check it out - unnverving and hilarious, ferocious and intimate, red-raw drum machines and saucy vocals.

Leo Chadburn – Sleep In The Shadow Of The Alternator | An important document, this deeply respectful set of audio postcards moves between the past and the future, forming a work that assumes symphonic dimensions

Thanks so much to The Tonearm for doing this interview with me, about the new album (out today), why the radio is important, the East Midlands, and a belated postscript to the Simon Bookish project: www.thetonearm.com/leo-chadburn...

The new album is out now! leochadburn.bandcamp.com/album/sleep-...

Excellent review by ‪@drtombolton.bsky.social‬ of today's new @leochadburn.bsky.social LP: "...draws on a tradition of poets writing the landscapes that fill their minds. reminiscent of Ivor Cutler, Alan Moore... a perfectly realised work and visionary triumph." thequietus.com/quietus-revi...

Great review (by Tom Bolton) of the new album (which comes out on Friday) on The Quietus today. Thank you!

Great show here! Thanks for including new track of mine...

It's #BandcampFriday, which means today is an ideal day to pre-order 'Sleep in the Shadow of the Alternator', (out next Friday, 8th). As ever, your support for my work is massively appreciated; album sales enable me to keep on releasing music. Thank you! X leochadburn.bandcamp.com/album/sleep-...

Thanks to Elizabeth Alker for previewing my new album on BBC Radio 3's 'Unclassified' last night! "..the narrative just keeps you gripped all the way through, and the electronics carry you along beautifully...” 🙌 Listen again here (album preview is 4:15 into the show): www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I’m excited to announce my new album, ‘Sleep in the Shadow of the Alternator’, which comes out on Friday 8th August. This album has been a long time in the making: it's dear to my heart. I really hope it resonates with you too. Info and pre-orders here: leochadburn.bandcamp.com/album/sleep-...

This Friday (4 July) - great concert series Music We'd Like to Hear continues; programe includes little piano piece by me written 25 years ago (!), alongside music by Tom Johnson, Cassandra Miller and more.... www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/music-wed-...

Also... the new album is very, very nearly finished...