Collaborative Projects

Leo has contributed music, sound and performance to various projects in the gallery and on stage. Some selected ones below…

Jennet Thomas: The Great Curdling
The Great Curdling (2022)

Film by Jennet Thomas.

Commissioned by the Whitstable Biennale, a "folk-sci-fi" short film set in a world where animals have "ended" and mourning them is taboo. Songs and sound design by Leo.

Press for The Great Curdling

...the 24-minute film teeters on the edge of plausibility yet ultimately delivers a darkly prescient take on our self-harming, planet-wrecking lifestyles...
Chris Sharratt, Frieze, 2022

Jennet Thomas: Animal Condensed >> Animal Expanded#2
Animal Condensed >> Animal Expanded #2 (2018)

Film / installation by Jennet Thomas for Tintype Gallery, London.

Leo provided unsettling arrangements of mediaeval music and noisy washes of synthesised sound design, mirroring this work's striking imagery of an alternate reality in which characters embrace or resist a mysterious intelligent substance.

Marianna Simnett: Worst Gift
Worst Gift (2017)

Film / installation by Marianna Simnett for Matt's Gallery, London.

Part fairy tale, part body horror, Leo contributed music and arrangements to this installation of film and choreographed light, shot on location in medical facilities and factories, his second collaboration with Marianna Simnett, following a live performance at the Serpentine Gallery in 2015

Jasleen Kaur : YOOROP
YOOROP (2017)

Film / installation by Jasleen Kaur for the V&A museum, London.

A dizzying collage of shots of European locations, seen from point of view of Indian cinema. The piece was projected onto the ceiling of Room 10a of the V&A Museum (Noble Living, 1350-1500). Leo wrote the soundtrack, based around recordings of harmoniums.

Frances Scott : CANWEYE { }
CANWEYE { } (2016)

16mm film and installation by Frances Scott for the Focal Point Gallery, Southend.

A haunting, labyrinthine film, shot on location in Venice and Canvey Island. Leo wrote the score, for string players who also appear onscreen. Exhibited within an installed theatrical set as Frances' first solo show, Summer 2016.

Jennet Thomas : The Unspeakable Freedom Device
The Unspeakable Freedom Device (2015)

Film and installation by Jennet Thomas, for the Grundy Gallery, Blackpool, 2015.

Leo wrote the music, based on electronic mutilations of pieces by John Dowland, for this narrative video: a wild, science fiction exploration of the cultural "after burn" of the imagery and ideas of Margaret Thatcher. Toured the UK during Spring 2015, re-exhibited in a new installed iteration at Block 336, London, 2016.

Jordan McKenzie : Shame Chorus
Shame Chorus (2015 and touring)

Performance devised by Jordan McKenzie for the Freud Museum, London.

Leo was one of twelve composers who contributed a song to this project, which set transcriptions of the lived experiences of members of the London Gay Men's Chorus, collected by psychoanalyst Susie Orbach. Jordan McKenzie presented the resulting music at the Freud Museum, and on tour at UK festivals.

Frances Scott : The Star and The Glow-worm
The Star and The Glow-worm (2015)

Site-specific performance in collaboration with Frances Scott for AIR Projects.

Taking place in the mysterious window of time precisely between civil twilight and sunrise on a May morning, a strange, quiet performance for singers walking through Granary Square, Kings Cross, London, based on words by William Wordsworth and devised by Frances Scott. Score and musical direction by Leo.

Richard Grayson : Nothing Can Stop Us Now
Nothing Can Stop Us Now (2014)

Five screen video installation by Richard Grayson for Dilston Grove / Matt's Gallery, 2014.

Taking as its starting point the 1943 song "Stalin Wasn't Stallin", the piece featured five singers shot on location at various landmarks of economic and cultural power in London, coordinated across time and space as if by magic. Score and musical direction by Leo.

Cerith Wyn Evans : Imagination Dead Imagine
Imagination Dead Imagine (2013)

Score and performance in collaboration with Cerith Wyn Evans, commissioned by IMMA, 2013.

Leo collaborated with artist Cerith Wyn Evans on a new score for unaccompanied voices, for performance at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Taking its title and starting point from Samuel Beckett's elliptical text, the piece combines lush harmonies with extended vocal techniques.

Tanya Axford : The Path Made by a Boat in Sound (3 down)
The Path Made by a Boat in Sound (3 down) (2012)

Installation by Tanya Axford, commissioned by the Whitstable Bienniale, 2012.

Leo devised the music for this installation - a combination of fleeting video images projected from pendulums and live musicians reacting to the movement of people within the gallery space.

Press for The Path Made by a Boat in Sound (3 down)

...a mesmerising work, the music of cello and piano is beautiful and immersive...
Dany Louise, New Statesman, 2012

Jennet Thomas : School of Change (video still)
School of Change (2012)

Video installation by Jennet Thomas, Matt's Gallery, London.

Leo wrote the music and worked on the sound design for this alternately hilarious and disturbing sci-fi video piece and appeared as the character 'Mr. New Structures'. Read an extended interview about the project (with stills) on Jennet's website and view the trailer here.

Ruiz Stephinson : Dream Machine (installation view)
Vagabond Galactica (2012)

Soundtrack for gallery installation by Ruiz Stephinson

An installation exploring the exuberant and unsettling imagery of fairground attractions, cartoon characters and space exploration. Leo's soundtrack was an analogous collision of electronic music, fairground organ and anachronistic sound effects.

Apartment House : De la Warhol (poster)
De La Warhol (2011)

Live performance with Apartment House at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill

To coincide with the major Andy Warhol exhibition, 'Warhol Is Here', Leo worked with Apartment House, writing a set of semi-improvised and modular arrangements of Lou Reed / John Cale's album Songs for Drella.

David Cunningham : A Lot of Pianos
A Lot of Pianos (2010)

Live performance at the Markson Pianos Showroom, London.

For an event curated by producer David Cunningham, Leo wrote a piece for twelve pianos, Unison: Things Are Getting Worse. Staged to coincide with Markson Pianos centenary and recorded for broadcast on Resonance FM. Read more about the project on David's website.

no.w.here : Recessional Aesthetics
Worker's Playtime (2010)

Soundtrack for Recessional Aesthetics event curated by no.w.here at the James Taylor Gallery, London.

Leo created a series of 'sonic interruptions' based on 1940s morale-boosting radio broadcasts (with spoken snatches of Das Kapital), to accompany a unique event organised by artists Brad Butler and Karen Mirza of no.w.here, exploring the effects of economic cuts on the arts.

Richard Grayson : Golden Space City of God (video still)
The Golden Space City of God (2009)

Video installation by Richard Grayson, Co-commissioned by ArtPace (San Antonio) and Matt's Gallery (London)

Leo wrote the score for this film installation, a 45-minute choral 'oratorio' setting of cult religious texts. Filmed on location in San Antonio, Texas, and exhibited at Matt's Gallery. Subsequently shown internationally.

Press for The Golden Space City of God

...Grayson commissioned Leo Chadburn to write the music and assembled a choir in Texas to sing it. The results are startling, shocking, distressing, unforgettable. Grayson's piece works as well as it does because everything is revealed so unassumingly... you slowly realise that these insane predictions bear a scary resemblance to world events. Close the book on the 2009 Turner prize, Grayson should be a shoo-in...
—Waldemar Januszczak, Sunday Times, May 17, 2009.

Caucasion Chalk Circle (production photo)
The Caucasian Chalk Circle (2007)

National Theatre / Filter Theatre production

Leo co-wrote a new score for this production of Brecht's play, which toured the UK before a sold-out run at the Cottesloe (National Theatre). He also played the role of 'The Singer' in an acclaimed performance.

Press for The Caucasian Chalk Circle

...At the production's centre is Leo Chadburn's Singer, who, as narrator and commentator, is a key component of the play's "alienation" effects. A charismatic blend of Scott Walker and Jarvis Cocker, Chadburn has rock-star glamour and a riveting presence. His vocals arrestingly combine crooning and Sprechgesang, and the musical score, created by Chadburn, Chris Branch and Tom Haines, is wildly abrasive...
—Sam Marlowe, Times, March 13, 2007.

Not Wanting To Say Anything About John Cage
Not Wanting To Say Anything About John Cage (2007)

Site-specific solo performance

Commissioned by the Magazin4 Gallery in Bregenz, Austria, Leo created this eerie spoken word performance with field recordings and electronics, presented as an installation in a black box space.

Frauke Requardt : Jammy Dodgers (production photo)
Jammy Dodgers (2007)

Dance performance by Frauke Requardt Company

Leo wrote and performed the electronic music in this work, which also featured the Ingrid Laubrock Quintet. It was presented at festivals across Europe before a run at the Royal Opera House, Linbury Studio.

Moisture and Funeral
Moisture & Funeral (2006)

Site-specific solo performance

Commissioned by the TwoSee boutique in London, a spoken word solo performance with slide projections and electronics that played with the tropes of the fashion industry, human sense and perception, and automatic writing.

Sandrine Nicoletta - Interplay
Interplay (2006)

Sound installation by Sandrine Nicoletta

Leo contributed improvised vocals to this sound installation, exhibited at the Galleria Maze, Turin. The voices of five singers in five languages were presented in Dolby surround sound, performing text scores by the artist.