Photo by Carmen Alt-Chaplin

CHRISTOPHER CHAPLIN

“Known for his unorthodox approach to electronic composition, Chaplin […] fuses the austere with the mythic, conjuring musical spaces that reflect his long-standing fascination with myths, ancient passages, and spiritual thresholds.” – CHAIN DLK

“For fans of Tony Conrad, Ben Vida, Carlos Niño, no wave, and gothic cathedrals, Road to Rosslyn by Christopher Chaplin guides us on a medieval pilgrimage through the United Kingdom, capturing the divine entity which animates the gothic style by dedicating each track to a specific iconic church” – OUTSIDE NOISE

Christopher James Chaplin is a British composer and experimental artist, and he 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’ (2010) – 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 him to participate in a BBC Radio 3 ‘Late Junction’ live session.
The result of this collaboration led to another album ‘King of Hearts’ (2012). 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, Chaplin’s first solo album ‘Je suis le Ténébreux’, featuring Hans Joachim Roedelius, Christine Roedelius, Claudia Schumann, and Judith Chema. In 2018, he released ‘Paradise Lost’ loosely based on John Milton’s poem, and it featured tenor Nathan Vale and a text written and read by artist Leslie Winer.
In 2020 his third solo album ‘M’ was released, featuring guest artist Finley Quayle, Austrian musician Mira Lu Kovavs and French performer Aurelia Thierree. In 2022 his fourth solo album ‘Patriarchs’ was released, consisting of ten tracks based on the ten antediluvian patriarchs: from Adam to Noah.
His latest solo releases are ‘Door 1 Door 2’ (2023, Fabrique Rec.) )with vocal support from Carmen Alt-Chaplin, bass singer Tassos Apostolou, and the soprano Michela Varvaro, and ‘Road to Rosslyn’ (2026, Curious Music), a symbolic path through seven Gothic churches across Britain.
In addition to his solo studio recordings, Chaplin has continued to perform numerous collaborative and improvised live shows with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and other artists including Eraldo Bernocchi, Andrew Heath, CM von Haussswolff, Tim Story and the Icelandic electronic music trio Stereo Hypnosis. Based on these live improvisations, the ambient albums ‘The Same and the Other’ (2024) ‘Triptych in Blue’ (2017), ‘Bjarmi’ (2018), and ‘Zurufe’ were released.