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...

5 years ago today I released my album The Subject / The Object: two 20-minute tracks: a sprawling monologue and an amorphous drone choir. It’s an intense one, but I’d love you to hear it. There's about a dozen tapes left, if you’d like to buy a physical copy: leochadburn.bandcamp.com/album/the-su...

I'm working hard finishing a new album. A dreamlike monologue with some delicate music. Quite personal, so I'm slighty afriad of putting it out into the world, but also excited for you to hear it later this Summer. Tam tam features heavily on one track. Had to take my noisy boots off in the studio.

Nice to see my name among the credits on the new Pulp album (released today), alongside a whole load of brilliant friends and amazing musicians. Delighted to be even a tiny part to this.

Brilliant vocal ensemble The Marian Consort appeared on the 🇩🇪 radio over the weekend, performing "Flower Dictionary" by me (oder „Blumenlexikon“, which is clearly a better title). It's 1:13:40 into the programme, but listen to them doing late Renaissance music too: so gorgeous...

Surprised and flattered that an old tweet of mine is quoted in Ian Penman's new book on Erik Satie ("Three Piece Suite" on Fitzcarraldo Editions)! Also it's my only remaining tweet, since I've deleted and abandoned that awful website now.

View from the vocal booth: Currently finishing making a new album. If you don't own my previous album(s), today ( #BandcampFriday ) is an ideal day to buy one. Everything goes towards funding the next one, on my tiny little DIY record label. Hugely grateful for the support: leochadburn.bandcamp.com

From the archive, twenty years ago (Plan B Magazine, 2005): "Simon Bookish stands onstage in a buttercup yellow jumpsuit that he made himself from a pair of curtains... He looks like a spaceship raybeam poured into a pair of sex wellies...

Leafcutter John in surround sound at City next week - come down! www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

I finally got round to watching "The Substance" the other week. I was so annoyed by the scene with the old man in the diner. It should have been elliptical, mysterious, probably no dialogue. Instead, his identity is signposted to the viewer so heavy-handedly, I felt my intelligence draining out...

If you'd like to support my work, today is a great day to do it #BandcampFriday... My music is released on my own label - total staff = me alone. I can't complain, but it is tough to keep on making things on a shoestring. Any purchases always massively appreciated. leochadburn.bandcamp.com

I have on occasion bought a book based on how handsome the cover is, such as this one (I was also intrigued by the idea of 'science fiction verse'). Unfortunately, it contains what I believe to be the worst poetry ever written.