SLOWER / TALKER : Cover Art
New Release:
| Artist: | Leo Chadburn |
| Title: | Slower / Talker |
| Release Date: | 26th March 2021 |
| Format: | Digital Album / CD |
| Genre: | contemporary classical, experimental, spoken word, minimalist |
PRESS RELEASE BEGINS
PRESS RELEASE:
A new album of music by Leo Chadburn, SLOWER / TALKER explores a striking sound-world of drifting piano and transparent string harmonies, bold silences and meticulous, grid-like musical structures, which frame understated spoken voiceovers and fleeting song.
It features performances by two of the world’s leading groups for experimental music: Apartment House (UK) and Quatour Bozzini (Canada), alongside the voices of the composer and the actor Gemma Saunders (National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company).
SLOWER / TALKER comprises six pieces, written over the period of a decade. It follows Leo Chadburn's five previous albums of avant pop and electronic music (released under his own name and the pseudonym Simon Bookish).
While the musical palette is restrained, influenced by minimal music, visual art and structuralist film, the texts look out into the world. These encompass a list of seventy names of moth species in The Indistinguishables, a list of topographical features encircling London in Freezywater, the words of Mao Zedong (X Chairman Maos), a reflection on a pioneering journey by deep-ocean explorer Jacques Piccard (Five Loops for the Bathscaphe), the idiosyncratic vocabulary of the fragrance industry (Vapour Descriptors) and a stream of consciousness on the culture and properties of chemical elements (The Halogens).
Slower / Talker : Credits
Written by Leo Chadburn
Performers:
Quatuor Bozzini: Clemens Merkel & Xavier Lepage-Brault (violins), Stéphanie Bozzini (viola), Isabelle Bozzini (cello).
Apartment House: Mira Benjamin & Gordon MacKay (violins), Bridget Carey (viola), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Kerry Yong (piano, reed organ and Casiotone keyboards), Mark Knoop (piano), Simon Limbrick (handbell), Max de Wardener (electric bass), Sam Cave (electric guitar).
Gemma Saunders (voice), Leo Chadburn (voice, piano and Dictaphones) and Kate Halsall (voice, piano).
Production credits:
The Indistinguishables was produced by Laurent Major and engineered by Vincent Blain. Recorded at Studio Madame Wood, Montréal.
Vapour Descriptors was produced by Chris Lewis. Recorded at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, London. Included on this album with the kind permission of Kate Halsall.
All other tracks were produced by John Lely and engineered by Gus White. Recorded at Goldsmiths Music Studios, London.
Additional production and recordings on all tracks by Leo Chadburn.
Additional recordings (on Freezywater) by Simon Limbrick.
Mixed by John Lely and Leo Chadburn.
Mastered by Eric James at Philosopher’s Barn Mastering.
Biography
Leo Chadburn's unpredictable, wide-ranging work as a composer and performer includes experimental music for new classical ensembles, solo performances that merge his voice with electronic music, and music for artists’ film and installation art. It has been broadcast on BBC Radio 1, 3 and 6 Music, Resonance FM and internationally.
He is also known as Simon Bookish, under which guise he released a trilogy of albums of 'avant pop' and numerous remixes for international artists (including Owen Pallett, Grizzly Bear, Seb Rochford, Serafina Steer).
His work in the last decade has been preoccupied with the ideas of 'found text' and the musicality/theatricality of speaking voices. These include The Indistinguishables (2014) for Quatour Bozzini, Five Loops for the Bathyscaphe (2017) for the Britten Sinfonia, ANTICLOCK (2019) for Decibel and RED & BLUE (2015), a solo performance based on the Cold War correspondence between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
He won a 2016 British Composer Award (The Ivors Composer Awards) for his piece Freezywater, written for Apartment House, and was nominated for a second award the following year for Affix Stamp Here written for the vocal ensemble EXAUDI.
His extensive collaborative work with visual artists includes Jennet Thomas' film The Unspeakable Freedom Device (2015), Richard Grayson's five screen video installation Nothing Can Stop Us Now (2014) and Cerith Wyn Evans' performance work Imagination Dead Imagine (2013), for spaces including Matt's Gallery, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Serpentine Gallery and the V&A.