Leo Abrahams

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English musician, composer, and producer (born 1977)

title: "Leo Abrahams" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1977-births", "living-people", "musicians-from-the-london-borough-of-camden", "english-record-producers", "english-folk-guitarists", "english-male-guitarists", "english-session-musicians", "english-film-score-composers", "english-male-film-score-composers", "alumni-of-the-royal-academy-of-music", "21st-century-british-guitarists", "21st-century-british-male-musicians", "film-people-from-london"] description: "English musician, composer, and producer (born 1977)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Abrahams" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English musician, composer, and producer (born 1977) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameLeo Abrahams
imageLeoAbrahamsLondon0710.jpg
captionAbrahams in his London studio in 2010
birth_date
birth_placeCamden, London, England
instrument
genre
occupation
years_active2000–present
label
websitewww.LeoAbrahams.com
::

| name = Leo Abrahams | image = LeoAbrahamsLondon0710.jpg | alt = | caption = Abrahams in his London studio in 2010 | image_size = | birth_date = | birth_place = Camden, London, England | origin = | instrument = | genre = | occupation = | years_active = 2000–present | label = | website = www.LeoAbrahams.com

Leo Matthew Abrahams (born 28 November 1977) is an English musician, composer and producer. He has collaborated with Brian Eno,{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/underwire/tag/leo-abrahams/ |title=Exclusive: Track List From Brian Eno's Upcoming Album, Small Craft on a Milk Sea |last=Van Buskirk |first=Eliot |date=23 August 2010 |magazine=Wired |access-date=5 March 2011}}{{cite news |url=http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/brian-eno-release-collaborative-album-jon-hopkins-and-leo-abrahams-warp |title=Brian Eno to release collaborative album with Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams on Warp |author=Mr. P |date=2 August 2010 |publisher=TinyMixTapes |access-date=5 March 2011}} Katie Melua, Imogen Heap, Jarvis Cocker, Carl Barât, Regina Spektor, Jon Hopkins and Paul Simon. After attending the Royal Academy of Music in England, he started his musical career by touring as lead guitarist with Imogen Heap.

Since 2005, he has released five solo albums, largely in an ambient style involving complex arrangements and a use of guitar-generated textures.{{cite news |url=http://www.flyglobalmusic.com/fly/archives/europe_reviews/leo_abrahams_the_grape_and_the.html |title=Reviews: The Grape and the Grain |last=Hectic |first=Garry |date=1 February 2009 |publisher=Fly Global Music |access-date=5 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605092141/http://www.flyglobalmusic.com/fly/archives/europe_reviews/leo_abrahams_the_grape_and_the.html |archive-date=5 June 2011 |url-status=dead |url=https://echoesblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/echo-location-leo-abrahams-may-cd-of-the-month/ |title=Leo Abrahams May CD of the Month |last=Dilibrito |first=John |date=May 2009 |publisher=The Echoes Blog |access-date=5 March 2011}} Abrahams has produced Regina Spektor's album Remember Us to Life. Hayden Thorpe's Diviner, Editors' Violence and Ghostpoet's Dark Days + Canapés.

Career

Early years

Abrahams attended the Royal Academy of Music.{{cite news |url=http://www.leoabrahams.com/#/biography |title=Biography |last= |first= |date= |publisher=LeoAbrahams.com |access-date=5 March 2011}} He studied under Steve Martland and Nick Ingman. During his studies, Abrahams was invited to join Imogen Heap's touring band. He left the Royal Academy of Music to tour England for several months.

Collaborative work

Through Heap, Abrahams was introduced to alternative folk artist Ed Harcourt, who Abrahams joined as a guitarist, playing lead guitar and scoring the instrumental parts on Harcourt's 2001 album Here Be Monsters, as well as Harcourt's subsequent albums.

A couple of years later, Abrahams had a fortuitous meeting with producer and ambient music pioneer Brian Eno in a Notting Hill{{cite news |url = http://news.qthemusic.com/2009/03/leo_abrahams.html |title = Track of the Day: Leo Abrahams |date = 3 October 2009 |publisher = QTheMusic |access-date = 5 March 2011 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110715134557/http://news.qthemusic.com/2009/03/leo_abrahams.html |archive-date = 15 July 2011 |df = dmy-all |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/3x4h/ |title=Review: Honeytrap |last=Marsh |first=Peter |date=8 August 2005 |publisher=BBC |access-date=5 March 2011}}

In 2010, Abrahams joined with long-time collaborators Jon Hopkins and Brian Eno to create the album Small Craft on a Milk Sea. The album is based largely on a two-week period of joint improvisation, as well as "several years of jams between the three of us", and is officially described as "a Brian Eno album featuring Leo Abrahams and Jon Hopkins."

As a guitarist he has played on over 100 records by artists including Florence and the Machine, Annie Lennox, Marianne Faithfull and Badly Drawn Boy. With David Holmes he contributed several instruments and co-wrote several tracks on Holmes' release The Holy Pictures.

Abrahams has written with and produced for a variety of musicians. He contributed additional production to David Byrne and Brian Eno's Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, co-writing the lead single "Strange Overtones". His production credits include Katie Melua, Wild Beasts, Paolo Nutini, Frightened Rabbit, Oscar and the Wolf, Hotei, Karl Hyde solo album, Diagrams, Josephine Oniyama, Carl Barât (of The Libertines), Chris Difford (of Squeeze), Brett Anderson (of Suede), Iarla O'Lionaird, Sparrow and the Workshop and Kill It Kid. He arranged the string sections for the 2003 album Silence is Easy by Starsailor, also conducting the orchestra at Abbey Road Studios.

He has played guitar for Pulp on their 2011–2012 reunion dates, although he was not an official member of the band.

Solo albums and film scores

Inspired by his work on the film score to the 2003 film Code 46, Abrahams created his first solo album in 2005: Honeytrap, released on Just Music. It relies primarily on ambient sounds generated exclusively by guitars, rejecting keyboard effects, sampling, computer effects, or keyboards. The BBC referred to the album as "subtle, imaginative and sometimes intoxicatingly lovely." Scene Memory (2006), his second solo album, was also in an ambient style, with sounds created entirely by playing electric guitars through chains of laptop effects.{{cite news |url=http://www.glasswerk.co.uk/reviews/national/3808/Leo+Abrahams |title=Reviews: Scene Memory |last=Burden |first=Andrew |date=31 July 2006 |publisher=Glasswerk |access-date=3 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325071929/http://www.glasswerk.co.uk/reviews/national/3808/Leo+Abrahams |archive-date=25 March 2012 |url-status=dead |url=http://boomkat.com/cds/22688-leo-abrahams-scene-memory |title=Product Review: Scene Memory |last= |first= |date= |publisher=Boomkat |access-date=3 July 2010}} Sea of Tranquility reviewed the album saying "he respects a certain level of restraint – the solo guitar- putting into sharp relief the...limitless opportunities for the resultant sounds and form. This work is thoughtful, adventurous, and the result of a high degree of artistic integrity."{{cite news |url=http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=4028 |title=Review: Scene Memory |last=Leimer |first=Kerry |date=3 August 2006 |publisher=Sea of Tranquility |access-date=3 July 2010}}

His third album, the 2007 The Unrest Cure, was initially built out of sessions in New York with David Holmes' rhythm section. Brian Eno, KT Turnstall, Ed Harcourt, Foy Vance, Pati Yang, Merz, Phoebe Legere, Kari Kleiv, and poet Bingo Gazingo also contributed to the album. It involves heavier guitar lines than the previous two albums.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/w29x/ |title=Review: The Unrest Cure |last=Hayden |first=Guy |date=14 February 2008 |publisher=BBC |access-date=5 March 2011}} On his 2008 album Grape and the Grain, Abrahams continued to use English Folk themes, mainly with pieces featuring guitar, added instrumentation such as cello and medieval lute, and occasionally a hurdy-gurdy, which he learnt to play for the record.{{cite news |url=http://thefourohfive.com/reviews/678 |title=Leo Abrahams – The Grape and The Grain |last= |first= |date=1 April 2009 |publisher=The 405 |access-date=5 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100914171012/http://thefourohfive.com/reviews/678 |archive-date=14 September 2010 |url-status=dead |url=http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/albumreview/leo-abrahams-the-grape-and-the-grainx17x04x09 |title=Review of Leo Abrahams' album 'The Grape and the Grain' |last=Roffey |first=Pablo |date=17 April 2009 |publisher=ContactMusic |access-date=5 March 2011}}

He has released two further EPs on the Just Music label, and also released a vocal-based record on One Little Indian in 2011.

He has co-written or arranged a variety of film soundtracks, including Peter Jackson's 2009 release The Lovely Bones with Brian Eno, Steve McQueen's award-winning Hunger with David Holmes, Seeking 1906 with Simon Winchester, Gardens of Paradise, The Graduates, After Happily Ever After, and also on the Oceans series with David Holmes.

Discography

Solo albums

  • Honeytrap (2005)
  • Scene Memory (2006)
  • The Unrest Cure (2007)
  • The Grape and the Grain (2008)
  • Daylight (2015)
  • Scene Memory II (2021)

EPs and singles

  • EP1 (2006)
  • Searching 1906 (2006)
  • December Songs (2009)
  • Zero Sum (2013)
  • Yield (2022)

Collaborations

Soundtracks

References

References

  1. "Leo Abrahams: Producer, Writer, Composer, Arranger". Solar Management.
  2. "Artists: Leo Abrahams". JustMusic.com.
  3. "Leo Abrahams: Brian Eno, David Byrne, Wild Beasts".
  4. Beta, Andy. "Brian Eno: Small Craft on a Milk Sea". [[Spin (magazine).

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

1977-birthsliving-peoplemusicians-from-the-london-borough-of-camdenenglish-record-producersenglish-folk-guitaristsenglish-male-guitaristsenglish-session-musiciansenglish-film-score-composersenglish-male-film-score-composersalumni-of-the-royal-academy-of-music21st-century-british-guitarists21st-century-british-male-musiciansfilm-people-from-london