Ouse Dragon

“Imagine, but not so hard because it’s a true and real adventure...” That invitation from Mark Chadwick, best known as the lead singer of Levellers, sets the tone for Ouse Dragon: a six-piece solo work shaped by Lewes, where its tales begin.

Dreamlike, eerie and beautifully off-centre, the album moves through electronic soundscapes, ambient textures, strummed acoustic guitar, drifting keyboards, keening noises and sudden percussion. It reveals a very different side of Mark Chadwick, with storytelling vocals carrying songs of murder, abduction, misadventures, suicide, possession, spirits and other dimensions.

Originally performed live in Lewes, Ouse Dragon includes the near-nine-minute title track, Chrysanthemums and Diadems, Dance Of The Crows, Leap, Bearing Witness and the epic closer Paxos Room. Headphones and a quiet mind essential.