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,[4][7] as well as Harcourt's subsequent albums.[7]
A couple of years later Abrahams had a fortuitous meeting with producer and ambient music pioneer Brian Eno in a Notting Hill[9] guitar shop. Eno stated, "I spotted him trying out a guitar, the first I've ever seen in a guitar shop who wasn't playing 'Stairway to Heaven,' so I thought he must be good."[4][6] Eno invited Abrahams to his studio, and Abrahams contributed guitar to Eno's album with J. Peter Schwalm, Drawn From Life, which was released in 2001. Abrahams went on to contribute instrumentals to a number of musicians produced by Eno, including Grace Jones, Seun Kuti, Nick Cave, and Paul Simon's 2006 album Surprise.[6][10]
In 2010, Abrahams joined with long-time collaborators Jon Hopkins and Brian Eno[11] to create the album Small Craft on a Milk Sea. The album is based largely on a two-week period of joint improvisation,[4] 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."[1]
He has played guitar for Pulp on their 2011–2012 reunion dates, although 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:[6]Honeytrap, released on Just Music. It relies primarily on ambient sounds generated exclusively by guitars, rejecting keyboard effects, sampling, computer effects, or keyboards.[4] The BBC referred to the album as "subtle, imaginative and sometimes intoxicatingly lovely."[10]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.[12] A Boomkat review stated "Abrahams blends piano, guitar, and electronics to an almost euphoric effect – the record feels like you are walking in a dream."[13]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."[14]
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.[7] It involves heavier guitar lines than the previous two albums.[15] On his 2008 album Grape and the Grain, Abrahams continued to use English Folk themes,[9] mainly with pieces featuring guitar, added instrumentation such as cello and medievallute,[6] and occasionally a hurdy-gurdy, which he learnt to play for the record.[4][16][17]
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
2000: "Last of England" by Sex Gang Children – composer, producer, all instruments
