Leo Abrahams

Leo Abrahams
Leo Abrahams
Born	November 28, 1977 (age 48); England
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, record producer
Years active	2000–present
Known for	Collaborations with Brian Eno, Imogen Heap, Paul Simon; solo ambient albums; film scores

Leo Matthew Abrahams (born 28 November 1977) is a distinguished English musician, composer, and record producer. His collaborations span a range of prominent artists such as Brian Eno, Katie Melua, Imogen Heap, Jarvis Cocker, Carl Barât, Regina Spektor, Jon Hopkins, and Paul Simon. After enrolling at the Royal Academy of Music in England, Abrahams embarked on his professional journey by touring as the lead guitarist for Imogen Heap.

Since 2005, he has released five solo albums, predominantly within the ambient genre, characterized by intricate arrangements and guitar-based soundscapes. His contributions extend to co-writing and arranging film scores, including those for Peter Jackson's 2009 film The Lovely Bones and Steve McQueen's Hunger.

As a producer, Abrahams has overseen projects such as Regina Spektor's Remember Us to Life, Hayden Thorpe's Diviner, Editors' Violence, and Ghostpoet's Dark Days + Canapés.

Early years

Abrahams studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was mentored by Steve Martland and Nick Ingman. During this period, he joined Imogen Heap's touring ensemble, leading him to leave the Academy to undertake a several-month tour across England.

Collaborative work

Abrahams’ association with alternative folk musician Ed Harcourt began through his connection with Heap; he performed as guitarist and contributed instrumental arrangements on Harcourt's 2001 album Here Be Monsters along with later releases.

A significant encounter with producer and ambient music innovator Brian Eno at a guitar shop in Notting Hill resulted in Abrahams providing guitar work for Eno’s 2001 release Drawn From Life. This collaboration continued across various projects involving Eno, including work with artists like Grace Jones, Seun Kuti, Nick Cave, and on Paul Simon’s 2006 album Surprise.

In 2010, Abrahams teamed up with long-standing collaborators Jon Hopkins and Brian Eno to produce the album Small Craft on a Milk Sea, which emerged from an intensive two-week improvisation session coupled with years of collaborative jamming. The album is officially credited as "a Brian Eno album featuring Leo Abrahams and Jon Hopkins."

As a guitarist, he has contributed to over one hundred recordings for artists including Florence and the Machine, Annie Lennox, Marianne Faithfull, and Badly Drawn Boy. Additionally, he co-wrote and performed on David Holmes’ album The Holy Pictures.

Abrahams has engaged in songwriting and production roles for numerous musicians. Notably, he provided additional production on the collaborative effort between David Byrne and Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, co-writing its lead single "Strange Overtones". His production portfolio also includes work with Katie Melua, Wild Beasts, Paolo Nutini, Frightened Rabbit, Oscar and the Wolf, Hotei, Karl Hyde, Diagrams, Josephine Oniyama, Carl Barât, Chris Difford, Brett Anderson, Iarla O'Lionaird, Sparrow and the Workshop, and Kill It Kid. At Abbey Road Studios, he arranged string sections and conducted the orchestra for Starsailor’s 2003 album Silence is Easy.

During Pulp’s reunion tours from 2011 to 2012, Abrahams performed as their guitarist, although he was not officially part of the band.

Solo projects and soundtrack work

Following his involvement with the 2003 soundtrack for Code 46, Abrahams debuted his first solo record in 2005 titled Honeytrap, released through Just Music. This album is characterized by ambient textures created solely using guitars, deliberately excluding keyboards and digital effects. The BBC praised it as "subtle, imaginative and sometimes intoxicatingly lovely." His sophomore solo release, Scene Memory (2006), sustained this ambient approach by employing electric guitars enhanced with laptop-generated effects. Critics highlighted its fusion of piano, guitar, and electronic elements for evoking a dreamlike mood.

His third solo effort, The Unrest Cure (2007), was crafted during sessions in New York featuring the rhythm section of David Holmes and contributions from artists such as Brian Eno, KT Tunstall, Ed Harcourt, Foy Vance, Pati Yang, Merz, Phoebe Legere, Kari Kleiv, and poet Bingo Gazingo. This album marked a shift towards more robust guitar arrangements compared to earlier works. With 2008's Grape and the Grain, Abrahams blended English folk influences incorporating instruments like guitar, cello, medieval lute, and hurdy-gurdy—an instrument he mastered specifically for this project.

In addition to these albums, Abrahams has issued two EPs on Just Music and a vocal-centered album released on One Little Indian in 2011.

Regarding film composition, he has collaborated on or arranged scores including Peter Jackson's 2009 film The Lovely Bones alongside Brian Eno; Steve McQueen's acclaimed Hunger with David Holmes; Seeking 1906 with Simon Winchester; Gardens of Paradise; The Graduates; After Happily Ever After; and the Oceans documentary series with David Holmes.

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)

Collaborative projects

2000: Composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist on "Last of England" by Sex Gang Children
2001: Guitar and string arrangements on Ed Harcourt’s Here Be Monsters
2003: Orchestral arrangements, guitar, keyboard contributions on Ed Harcourt’s From Every Sphere
2003: String arrangements for Starsailor’s Silence is Easy (#2 UK)
2005: Co-writer on Mark Owen’s How the Mighty Fall (#78 UK)
2005: String and wind arrangements for Ed Harcourt’s Elephant's Graveyard
2006: Production and guitar work on Andi Sex Gang’s Madman in the Basket
2006: Guitar performances on J. Peter Schwalm’s Musikain
2007: Laptop guitar contributions to Andi Sex Gang’s Inventing New Destruction
2008: Production and instrumental roles on David Byrne/Brian Eno’s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (#1 CMJ)
2008: Co-production, guitars, piano, percussion on Cara Dillon’s The Redcastle Sessions
2008: Guitar, bass, keyboards, marxophone, hurdy-gurdy on David Holmes’ The Holy Pictures
2009: Co-writer and producer for Brett Anderson’s Slow Attack
2009: Additional production and guitar on Natalie Imbruglia’s Come to Life
2009: Production and keyboard work for Smoke Fairies’ Frozen Heart
2009: Producer, co-writer, arranger, guitar, piano on Foy Vance’s Portraits of the Artists
2010: Producer for Smoke Fairies’ Ghosts
2010: Co-writer, co-producer, guitar, guitaret, laptop on Brian Eno/Jon Hopkins’ Small Craft on a Milk Sea
2010: Co-writer and instrumentalist on Carl Barât’s self-titled album including technical roles
2011: Producer, co-writer, arranger with guitar and piano on Carl Barât’s Death Fires
2011: Co-writer and producer with guitar on Brett Anderson’s Black Rainbows
2011: Producer, arranger, guitarist, pianist for Paolo Nutini’s John Martyn tribute project
2011: Producer, co-writer, arranger with guitar and piano on Chris Difford’s Cashmere If You Can
2011: Producer for Sparrow and the Workshop’s Spitting Daggers
2011: Producer for Iarla O'Lionaird’s Foxlight
2011: Producer for Seun Kuti’s From Africa with Fury
2011: Producer/editor on Aisha Orazbayeva’s Outside
2012: Producer of Frightened Rabbit’s EP State Hospital (EP)
2012: Co-writer and producer with instrumental contributions to Josephine Oniyama’s Portrait
2013: Producer for Frightened Rabbit’s album Pedestrian Verse
2013: Producer and co-writer for Karl Hyde’s album Edgeland
2013: Producer of an EP by Olivia Chaney
2014: Additional production and mixing on Oscar and the Wolf’s album Entity
2014: Engineering work on Aisha Orazbayeva’s The Hand Gallery project
2014: Co-producer and session musician for Wild Beasts’ album Present Tense
2014: Co-writer, co-producer with multiple instrument roles including string/horn arrangements for Paolo Nutini's Caustic Love (Superfly)
2014: Guitarist on Ruper Ordorika's album Lurrean etzanda
2014: Co-writer and producer for Tomoyasu Hotei's New Beginnings
2015: Producer, engineer, guitarist, hurdy-gurdy player for Soko's album My Dreams Dictate My Reality
2015: Mixing engineer for Sam Lee's The Fade In Time
2016: Producer of Regina Spektor's album Remember Us To Life
2016: Co-writer of Emmy The Great's EP ’S'
2017: Programming contributions to Goldfrapp's album Silver Eye
2017: Co-producer of Yasmine Hamdan's album Al Jamilat
2017: Co-writer and producer of Ghostpoet's Dark Days and Canapés
2018: Producer of Editors’ album Violence
2018: Co-mixer of Tunng's Songs You Make At Night
2019: Producer with guitar and keyboard performances on Hayden Thorpe's Diviner
2020: Producer and instrumentalist on Katie Melua's Album No. 8
2020: Producer, guitarist, mixer, composer for Visitations alongside Shahzad Ismaily
2020: Producer, guitarist, mixer with Martin France in Krononaut

Soundtracks

2007: Searching 1906 – credited as writer and performer
2009: Five Minutes of Heaven – collaborated as co-writer alongside David Holmes
2009: Hunger – co-written with David Holmes
2009: The Lovely Bones – co-composed with Brian Eno, contributed guitar
2010: Yohan: The Child Wanderer – served as orchestrator
2011: After Happily Ever After – composed the score
2012: Gardens of Paradise – score composer
2012: The Graduates/Los Graduados – music composition
2013: The Outer Edges (Edgeland) – composed original soundtrack

External links