To date, Chadburn has released three solo albums under the name Simon Bookish. The first two, Unfair/Funfair (2006) and Trainwreck/Raincheck (2007), combined his voice with synthesizers and laptop computers. His use of spoken word on Trainwreck/Raincheck and in live performances drew comparisons with "Bowie and Baudrillard, Burroughs and Byrne".[7] His third album, Everything/Everything (2008) featured an ensemble of brass instruments, saxophones, Farfisa organ, piano, and harp. Chadburn describes this album as "a big band song cycle about science and information".[8][9]
Chadburn's most recent release as Simon Bookish was Red and Blue EP (2015), an experimental piece based on correspondence between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.[10]
Chadburn has written a number of works for classical music groups. These include Unison: Things Are Getting Worse for a large ensemble of pianists,[15][16]X Chairman Maos, written for the ensemble Apartment House and performed at the De La Warr Pavilion to coincide with their Andy Warhol exhibition in 2011,[15][17] and Five Loops for the Bathyscaphe (2018), commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia.[18]
His string quartet, The Indistinguishables was written for the Canadian quartet Quatuor Bozzini and performed at the 2014 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.[19] A performance by the quartet at Milton Court (Guildhall School of Music) in March 2019 with Gemma Saunders as narrator was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in September 2019.[20] His piece for chamber ensemble, Freezywater, commissioned by the Wigmore Hall, won a 2016 British Composer Award.[21] Chadburn was nominated for a second British Composer Award the following year, for his choral piece Affix Stamp Here,[22] written for the vocal ensemble EXAUDI.[23]
Chadburn is currently an associate composer of the London Symphony Orchestra,[24] who performed his piece Brown Leather Sofa in 2013.[25]
Chadburn received an Ivor Novello Award nomination at The Ivors Classical Awards 2024. English Dancing Master, for pre-recorded voices and string quartet, was nominated for Best Small Chamber Composition.[26]
Albums (as Leo Chadburn)
Chadburn has released two albums under his own name, Epigram / Microgram (2013),[27] an instrumental album which utilises the Casio CZ-101 synthesizer as its only sound source, and The Subject / The Object (2020), which comprises two 20-minute long tracks of spoken word stream of consciousness and drone music.[28]
Collaborations
Chadburn has collaborated on a number of projects with visual artists.[15] In 2009, he wrote the score for Richard Grayson's video installation The Golden Space City of God (exhibited at Matt's Gallery, London and Artpace, San Antonio), which featured a choir shot on location in Texas singing cult religious texts.[29][30]
In 2012, he collaborated with the artist Tanya Axford on a piece entitled The Path Made by a Boat in Sound (Three Down) for the Whitstable Biennale,[31] and with video artist Jennet Thomas, on her work School of Change, a "sci-fi musical film", again exhibited at Matt's Gallery.[32]
Chadburn has also written music for the theatre, working with the Royal National Theatre on a new musical score for their 2007 production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, in which he also played the part of "The Singer".[34]
He has occasionally performed works by other experimental composers, including John Cage,[37]Gavin Bryars,[38]Christopher Fox,[39]Frederic Rzewski (whose piece Coming Together he presented at the first London Contemporary Music Festival in 2013)[40] and Jennifer Walshe (whose work he performed at the 2017 London Contemporary Music Festival).[41] Alongside actor Gemma Saunders, Chadburn recorded a spoken word version of artist On Kawara's twenty volume book, One Million Years[Past and Future], which was released as a limited edition four CD set.[42]
^Januszczak, Waldemar Januszczak (13 August 2013). "Give credit to the crunch; A rewarding trip to East End galleries proves to Waldemar Januszczak that at least our bad times beget better art". Sunday Times.
