Artist Spotlight is our regular feature introducing you to Cities and Memory artists around the world with an in-depth interview. In this edition, we introduce you to Plymouth-based musician and composer Daniel Chudley – Le Corre, member of 90s psych-pop legends The Monsoon Bassoon and now a Stravinsky and John Zorn-influenced working under various guises.

Music making and composing. I am firstly a guitar player and all my music stems from this. It could be in song form or something a bit more expansive and involved. I generally post whatever I do online to various platforms such as my Soundcloud, Bandcamp and YouTube accounts.

I used to play in bands throughout the 90s and into the 2000s, the most majestic of which was The Monsoon Bassoon, a psych-fuelled progressive pop outfit.

• Rhoald Earl
• The Monsoon Bassoon
• Authority
• Daniel Chudley – Le Corre

The interview continues below ⬇️, and this map collects together all of Daniel’s contributions to Cities and Memory: 

Nesting seagulls, lively garden birds and magpies, the background hum of city transport, lively multiple occupancy houses and the ever southwesterly prevailing winds: all to the chant of the Plymouthian accent twanging with its unique dialect and tones.

I have always been around music. From listening to eight-tracks in my pyjamas in the car whilst waiting for mum to finish work, or singing in to a tape player when very young, and the joy of listening back to what you have done.

Then, of course, discovering Adam and the Ants in 1980 – then it was just all about music. I got my first guitar at 11, after attempts at the drums and trumpet. It was the quieter option, I guess.

I loved hard rock and metal from the age of 12 and this lead me to the world of bands and people with similar tastes and appetites to know more. This led the way to just loving all music in general. As I see it there are only two types… good and bad!

I love to play. It distracts me from everything else. I enter my zone and the world just dissipates into the background. It is my safe place.

This of course leads straight into recording the ideas, expanding on them and then hopefully sharing them. I do it because I love it and for no other reason.

I constantly write and record music that is of no specific genre or formula, although to me it all sounds the same, from my early years in a thrash metal band in Plymouth called Die Laughing to my most recent compositions using guitars, acoustic instruments and voice all recorded using the Garageband app on my desktop mini Mac.

You can hear some of my recordings on my Bandcamp page or the various Soundcloud pages I have. Here’s a select few:

•  A 20 minute soundscape/song. The idea was to show all the workings of a song coming together. I cut and pasted together this piece using all the recorded ideas from my songwriting process.
• An acoustic piece with vocals and effects.
• A sort of rock electro piece… unfinished due to the untimely death of my old computer and non backup of the files within. I had a rough edit though, and here it is.

The piece I created for the Sound of Adventure project using the voices of the Masai. I loved working on this piece and where it led me.

Their voices are so individual and characteristic that it demanded something joyous. I just hope it is conveyed in the final piece.

I created it using the original recordings, sampling them and looping them. I then played along on the ol’ trusty guitar until something clicked into place and then it just took off with a mind of its own.

I used Garageband, MIDI, acoustic and electric guitars. The idea was inspired by the timelessness of their voices and song and how it transports you away from everyday life and distractions to some otherworldly place. Thus the title, “ To step outside time’s relentless flow”.

I am obsessed by Captain Beefheart – all of his work is worth checking out: his voice and the sound he gets from it is mindblowing.

Stravinsky – I have an unhealthy obsession with collecting different recordings of The Rite of Spring on vinyl, just life affirming stuff really that’s been with me a long time. The Rite of Spring, The Firebird Suite, Fireworks all changed my life in some way.

John Zorn – possibly the most prolific composers of our time, just a rabbit hole that just keeps getting deeper. Amazing collaborations, film music, improvised jazz, pure noise and even metal.

Mike Patton – pretty much everything he touches. the latest thing I have is the Corpse Flower – check it out, it is astonishing.

The sound of seagulls just reminds me of home. I moved to London in 1994 and the whole time I was there I missed them. Not the most attractive of birdsong, but I really love them.

My guitar. I am not one for kit/gear, but I do have a Gretsch Penguin Parlour acoustic that I love.

I also love my Mac Mini with Garageband, but that’s only because that’s all I have to record on.

Two projects — I have four acoustic guitar pieces that I have never recorded together in a single session.

I am also working on some more Rhoald Earl music, pretty much progressive rock pop stuff – all works in progress.