Christopher Chaplin

Christopher James Chaplin, a British composer and experimental artist, has carved a unique path in the avant-garde music scene. With a background in piano studies in Vevey, Switzerland, he later made his way to London during the early 1980s, where he began to explore the boundaries of sound and composition.

In 2009, he was invited by Michael Martinek and Fabrique Records to work with the artist Kava on „Seven Echoes“ – a concept album released and first presented live at the Art Brut museum gugging in Lower Austria. There he encountered a pioneer of electronic music, Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia), who later invited Christopher to participate in a „Late Junction“ live session for BBC Radio 3. The result of this second collaboration eventually led to another album – „King of Hearts“. In the following years, Chaplin and Roedelius performed all over the world: mostly improvised performances with Roedelius on piano and electronics and Chaplin on synthesizers and orchestral samples.

In October 2016, Christopher Chaplin’s acclaimed first solo album „Je suis le Ténébreux“, including four epic compositions – with guest artists such as Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Christine Roedelius, French singer and actress Judith Chemla or Claudia Schumann – some of which had been recorded in Air’s legendary Paris Atlas Studio.

While Chaplin’s first album was an artistic interpretation of Gérard de Nerval’s poem of the same name and the „Enigma of Bologna“, his second longplayer „Paradise Lost“ (2018) translated John Milton’s poem about the descent of fallen angels into hell into epic soundscapes. This album features the voices of Nathan Vale and Leslie Winer. Vale is a British tenor and reciter, who specialises in baroque singing. The US musician, poet and artist Winer is almost his opposite number: Jean-Paul Gaultier described her as the first androgynous role model, who worked with Sinéad O’Connor, Grace Jones and Helmut Lang, among others.

In addition to his solo studio recordings, Christopher Chaplin continued to play numerous collaborative and improvised live shows with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and other artists such as the Icelandic electronic music trio Stereo Hypnosis. Based on these live improvisations, the ambient album „Bjarmi“ was recorded in Hvammstangi, Iceland, in 2018.

With his solo album “M” (2020) – the final part of a trilogy –, Chaplin not only picks up musically where his two predecessors left off, but takes it to the extreme with virtuosity and wit, with an over-theme that couldn’t fit better into our time – change and transformation. For the album he once more brought guest artists into his studio: BRIT Award winner Finley Quaye, the exceptional Austrian musician Mira Lu Kovacs and acclaimed artist and performer Aurelia Thierree.

Christopher Chaplin “Door 1 Door 2″ (album release on Sept 20, 2024)

„The myths of our Western tradition have often captivated me, whether they be Greek, Roman, or Judeo-Christian. Myths are a transcendent collective narrative; a buried memory, not intellectual but spiritual, alive to all the senses of another world. These stories often describe forbidding passages guarded by terrifying monster-like creatures, which, if conquered, give access to other planes. ‚Door 1 – Door 2‘ are two of these planes, opening to prophecy and kingship.“ (Christopher Chaplin)

Following the release of his powerful and dark album trilogy „Je suis le Ténébreux“, „Paradise Lost“ and „M“, British avant-garde composer Christopher James Chaplin has unveiled his latest major project in 2021: „Patriarchs“, which has been critically acclaimed. A musical exploration of the antediluvian patriarchs, from Adam to Noah, with which Chaplin also thrilled audiences live and immortalised on a concert album. After three years, the time has come to present his new studio album „Door 1 Door 2“ and it has become one of his most epochal works to date. Chaplin has once again invited great guests to the studio and secured the vocal support of Carmen Alt-Chaplin, Tassos Apostolou and the soprano Michela Varvaro. None other than Grammy-nominated American composer Tim Story, a long-time musical companion of Chaplin, is responsible for the strong and minimalist cover art.

„Door 1 Door 2“ is another powerful work of art in Chaplin’s musical universe, once again situated somewhere between electronic music and the avant-garde. Christopher Chaplin playfully transcends genre boundaries and manages to condense experimental and colourful electronics into chamber music in a unique way, transporting the listener into mental and spatiotemporal intermediate states. A musical microcosm all of its own, which can also be experienced in his impressive live solo performances.

(photo © Tim Cavadini)