Dr Leo Chadburn

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

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

Thank you!

🖤

Thank you so much Gerry!

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-...

Leo Chadburn – Sleep in the Shadow of the Alternator | The Quietus The composer (fka Simon Bookish) evokes visionary worlds from the ruins of Leicestershire's coal mining and power-generating past

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...

Cover of the CD version of Leo Chadburn, 'Sleep in the Shadow of the Alternator': two spheres of steel float in a black void, one glows red, green, blue.

Inner sleeve of the CD version of Leo Chadburn, 'Sleep in the Shadow of the Alternator'.

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/...

Oh thanks! I don't want to Dunning Kruger myself too much though: I am a "enthusiastic very amateur" lepidopterist. There's a few immediately unmistakeable species - Jersey Tiger, luckily, even when photographed from the unflattering underneath, couldn't be anything else. Hope you're well Josie! X

Hello! Apologies I haven't looked at BlueSky all day. It's a Jersey Tiger.

Leo Chadburn, "Sleep in the Shadow of the Alternator" album artwork. Two iron spheres float in a black void. As they touch, one sphere glows red, green and blue.

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-...

Music We'd Like to Hear - Summer 2025.2 The 20th annual summer concert series of new, neglected and unfamiliar music, in St Mary at Hill in the City of London.

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...

Album artwork for Leo Chadburn's "The Subject / The Object": a square piece of machinery, made of grey metal and mirrors, with a single on/off switch (actually a folded overhead projector) against a pink background.

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...

Tam tam on a stand in the studio, with XY microphones and boots abandoned in front of it.

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.

Das Marian Consort und „Die Sprache der Blumen“ Acht Sängerinnen und Sänger, ein Dirigent, Chorsätze zum großen biblischen Hymnus über die Liebe, das Hohelied, dazu Gesänge über Blumen: Das a-cappella-Programm des britischen Marian Consorts bietet ...

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...

Quoted Tweet: "Somehow, Satie wrote 'Uspud', a 30-minute score that sounds like mediaeval Morton Feldman, or some kind of gothic minimalism, in 1892. It's extraordinary."

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.

Acoustic panels mounted on keyboard stands, an ad hoc vocal booth.

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

I assumed "Harry Sword" was already a drag king name.

It seemed too good a moniker not to be already taken, and lo! according to a quick Google search there are at least three drag queens called Rosie Cheeks (Edinburgh, Phoenix AZ, Halifax CA), so you should probably consider another name for your act.

Me performing in 2004 on a light-up dancefloor in Kings Cross (?). Outfit: Black and white polka dot top / white safety boots.

...He yelps. He squawks. He declaims, in a voice made of dog roses and manuka honey and tar and plums and pebbles..."

No photographs of the yellow jumpsuit exist, but here's the "sex wellies" in action (2004):

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'm not sure why the article describes as "chaotic" a fairly bog standard puttanesca recipe. The only rogue ingredient is red peppers, which Bowie presumably added because they go so well with milk and cocaine.

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...

Leo Chadburn / Simon Bookish Leo Chadburn (London, UK) FKA Simon Bookish is a composer of experimental and 'avant-pop' music, vocalist and writer. His unpredictable work includes music for classical ensembles, dramatic solo perfo...

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