A DIY INDIEPOP VINYL & CASSETTE LABEL

The Leaf Library

March 31: The Leaf Library at The Ivy House

The Leaf Library launch their 4th studio album After The Rain, Strange Seeds at The Ivy House.
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Tickets from wegottickets.com/fikarecordings

The Leaf Library are a north London band playing melodic dream-like music built on layers of chiming guitars, pulsing electronics, noise and looping drones. They have released three studio albums (Daylight Versions, About Minerals and The World Is A Bell), a collaborative LP with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara (Melody Tomb), a recent double LP of rarities and compilation tracks (Library Music: Volume One) and a four track EP for Castles In Space.

The band formed in the mid 2000s around singer Kate Gibson and ex-Saloon guitarist Matt Ashton and has settled into the core line up that includes drummer Lewis Young and bassist Gareth Jones.

On their studio albums the band have collaborated with musicians as diverse as Alasdair MacLean of The Clientele, singer Ed Dowie, noise group Far Rainbow and string collective Iskra Strings, and have provided music for a number of exhibitions, films and performances. Over the last few years they have released five Monument CDRs; an on-going series of experimental solo and side projects on their Objects Forever imprint (which also features releases by Michael Tanner, Melinda Bronstein and anrimeal, amongst others).

In their live shows the carefully constructed and occasionally delicate sound world of their albums is replaced by a sometimes noisier and more intense experience, helped by the addition of an ever-evolving collective of musicians including guitarist Mike Cranny (of fellow drone pop travellers Firestations) and keyboardist Irina Shtreis.

Associated Leaf Library bands include Beneather, Boa Resa and Molch (drummer Lewis Young), Mirrored Daughters (Lewis and guitarist Matt Ashton, plus Marlody and Mike Firestations), The Form Group (guitarist Matt), Sea Glass (guitarist Matt again, Melinda Bronstein and Mike Firestations again), The Nameless Book (guitarist SJ Nelson), Sun Drawing (Matt again), Wintergreen (bassist Gareth Jones), and Basic Design (Matt again).

The Leaf Library - After The Rain, Strange Seeds [12"/CD]

Artist: The Leaf Library
Title: After The Rain, Strange Seeds
Format: 12" album on yellow vinyl | CD in digifile sleeve
Cat#: Fika114LP | Fika114CD
Release date: 20th March 2026
Bandcamp

London quartet The Leaf Library return with their brand new album After The Rain, Strange Seeds (out on 20 March via Fika), a luminous collection of pastoral indiepop, drawing inspiration from suburban isolation, unreliable memories and the surreality of the weather. Their most immediate and melodic work to date, the richly evocative songs brim with chiming guitars, buzzing organs and warm, dulcet strings, evoking Yo La Tengo’s more contemplative moments, The Clientele’s autumnal jangle pop and early Stereolab’s motorik melodicism. The sound of the album is defined by mixer John McEntire, whose work with Stereolab and Yo La Tengo (as well as a member of Tortoise and The Sea And Cake) have been major inspirations to the band.

The album explores themes of memory and place, albeit through an abstract haze – returning again and again to specific moments frozen in time: midsummer bright hot days in the Chilterns (“Sun In My Room”), meteorology and the strange movement of the weather (“Colour Chant”), red kites circling over suburban motorways (“Some Circling”), and the uncanny feeling of dusk and nighttime creatures on “The Reader’s Lamp” (titled by celebrated film director Peter Strickland). The lyrics are vivid yet elliptical, strung with abstract ideas and imagery, conjuring a gently unsettling, though never unwelcoming atmosphere. Not quite trusting your own recollection of things, while marvelling at the oddness of the natural world, the album’s title is a good summation of the mix of strangeness and hope contained within.

As on past albums the band - founded by singer Kate Gibson and ex-Saloon guitarist Matt Ashton in the mid 2000s, and now completed by drummer Lewis Young and bassist Gareth Jones - have involved their extended musical family, including guitarist Mike Cranny (of fellow drone pop travellers Firestations) a member of the Leaf Library live band. The album also sees the return of James Underwood’s Iskra Strings, a quartet that features on four tracks, with sumptuous arrangements by Daniel Fordham, as well as regular contributor Melinda Bronstein on vocals and Will Twynham (Dimorphodons) on harpsichord. They also welcomed Paddy Milner (on Hammond organ) and Scott McKeon (guitar) – both current members of Tom Jones’ band – for a startlingly delicate rolling crescendo to closing track “There Was Always A Golden Age”.

After The Rain, Strange Seeds is the fourth studio album from The Leaf Library, which follows Daylight Versions (2015), The World Is A Bell (2019), About Minerals (2020) and a collaborative LP on Mille Plateaux with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara (Melody Tomb), a double LP of rarities and compilation tracks (Library Music: Volume One - 2022) and a four track EP for electronic label Castles In Space. Band members have been involved with a plethora of solo projects, side-projects and collaborations, most recently Matt, Lewis, Mike from Firestations and singer Marlody in Mirrored Daughters.

Recorded across multiple studios between April 2022 and August 2023, After The Rain, Strange Seeds sees The Leaf Library challenging themselves with more traditional songwriting and more structured compositions (more chords and more choruses!) rather than just relying on sounds or textures. The result is The Leaf Library’s most accomplished and affecting work, John McEntire’s mix bringing a bold clarity to the band’s meticulous arrangements – closer to how they sound live than anything they’ve done before, and a culmination of where they’ve been heading over the years. With After The Rain, Strange Seeds they have created an album that is bright and transcendent yet blissfully intimate.

About The Leaf Library

The Leaf Library are a north London band playing melodic dream-like music built on layers of chiming guitars, pulsing electronics, noise and looping drones. They have released three studio albums (Daylight Versions, About Minerals and The World Is A Bell), a collaborative LP with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara (Melody Tomb), a recent double LP of rarities and compilation tracks (Library Music: Volume One) and a four track EP for Castles In Space.

The band formed in the mid 2000s around singer Kate Gibson and ex-Saloon guitarist Matt Ashton and has settled into the core line up that includes drummer Lewis Young and bassist Gareth Jones.

On their studio albums the band have collaborated with musicians as diverse as Alasdair MacLean of The Clientele, singer Ed Dowie, noise group Far Rainbow and string collective Iskra Strings, and have provided music for a number of exhibitions, films and performances. Over the last few years they have released five Monument CDRs; an on-going series of experimental solo and side projects on their Objects Forever imprint (which also features releases by Michael Tanner, Melinda Bronstein and anrimeal, amongst others).

In their live shows the carefully constructed and occasionally delicate sound world of their albums is replaced by a sometimes noisier and more intense experience, helped by the addition of an ever-evolving collective of musicians including guitarist Mike Cranny (of fellow drone pop travellers Firestations) and keyboardist Irina Shtreis.

Associated Leaf Library bands include Beneather, Boa Resa and Molch (drummer Lewis Young), Mirrored Daughters (Lewis and guitarist Matt Ashton, plus Marlody and Mike Firestations), The Form Group (guitarist Matt), Sea Glass (guitarist Matt again, Melinda Bronstein and Mike Firestations again), The Nameless Book (guitarist SJ Nelson), Sun Drawing (Matt again), Wintergreen (bassist Gareth Jones), and Basic Design (Matt again).

Press Quotes:

“World-weary yet innocent, blissful dreampop” – Uncut

“A sensory deprivation tank of experimental sometimes-pop” – Concrete Islands

“Like experiencing The Clientele’s ghostly pastoral elegies warped through the drone melodies of Stereolab" – PopLib

"A melancholy wonder" – The Guardian

"Fascinating, bold and experimental drone-pop" – Louder Than War

“Music for a rainy Tuesday afternoon of the soul” – Pete Paphides

The Leaf Library - The Reader's Lamp [Digital]

Artist: The Leaf Library
Title: The Reader’s Lamp
Format: digital single
Cat#: Fika114SG1
Release date: 14th January 2026
Bandcamp

London quartet The Leaf Library return with their fourth studio album After The Rain, Strange Seeds (out on 20 March), a luminous collection of pastoral indiepop, drawing inspiration from suburban isolation, unreliable memories and the surreality of the weather. The band have announced a series of UK dates this spring to support the release.

They share the first single, the string-laden “The Reader’s Lamp” (titled by celebrated film director Peter Strickland). A hymn to the strangeness of the natural world at dusk, the song is a gently motorik swoon through layers of guitar arpeggios, and Kate Gibson’s [something] vocals. Also featuring Paddy Milner (from the Tom Jones band) on electric piano, the single is an ideal starting point for the band’s multi-layered new album.

The Leaf Library’s most immediate and melodic work to date, After The Rain, Strange Seeds brims with chiming guitars, buzzing organs and warm, dulcet strings, evoking Yo La Tengo’s more contemplative moments, The Clientele’s autumnal jangle pop and early Stereolab’s motorik melodicism. The sound of the album is defined by mixer John McEntire, whose work with Stereolab and Yo La Tengo (as well as a member of Tortoise and The Sea And Cake) have been major inspirations to the band.

As on past albums the band - founded by singer Kate Gibson and ex-Saloon guitarist Matt Ashton in the mid 2000s, and now completed by drummer Lewis Young and bassist Gareth Jones - have involved their extended musical family, including guitarist Mike Cranny (of fellow drone pop travellers Firestations) and keyboardist Irina Shtreis, both members of the Leaf Library live band. The album also sees the return of James Underwood’s Iskra Strings, a quartet that features on four tracks, with sumptuous arrangements by Daniel Fordham, as well as regular contributor Melinda Bronstein on backing vocals and Will Twynham (Dimorphodons) on harpsichord.

Recorded across multiple studios between April 2022 and August 2023, the album sees The Leaf Library challenging themselves with more traditional songwriting and more structured compositions (more chords and more choruses!) rather than just relying on sounds or textures. The result is The Leaf Library’s most accomplished and affecting work, John McEntire’s mix bringing a bold clarity to the band’s meticulous arrangements – closer to how they sound live than anything they’ve done before, and a culmination of where they’ve been heading over the years. With After The Rain, Strange Seeds they have created an album that is bright and transcendent yet blissfully intimate.

About The Leaf Library

The Leaf Library are a north London band playing melodic dream-like music built on layers of chiming guitars, pulsing electronics, noise and looping drones. They have released three studio albums (Daylight Versions, About Minerals and The World Is A Bell), a collaborative LP with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara (Melody Tomb), a recent double LP of rarities and compilation tracks (Library Music: Volume One) and a four track EP for Castles In Space.

The band formed in the mid 2000s around singer Kate Gibson and ex-Saloon guitarist Matt Ashton and has settled into the core line up that includes drummer Lewis Young and bassist Gareth Jones.

On their studio albums the band have collaborated with musicians as diverse as Alasdair MacLean of The Clientele, singer Ed Dowie, noise group Far Rainbow and string collective Iskra Strings, and have provided music for a number of exhibitions, films and performances. Over the last few years they have released five Monument CDRs; an on-going series of experimental solo and side projects on their Objects Forever imprint (which also features releases by Michael Tanner, Melinda Bronstein and anrimeal, amongst others).

In their live shows the carefully constructed and occasionally delicate sound world of their albums is replaced by a sometimes noisier and more intense experience, helped by the addition of an ever-evolving collective of musicians including guitarist Mike Cranny (of fellow drone pop travellers Firestations) and keyboardist Irina Shtreis.

Associated Leaf Library bands include Beneather, Boa Resa and Molch (drummer Lewis Young), Mirrored Daughters (Lewis and guitarist Matt Ashton, plus Marlody and Mike Firestations), The Form Group (guitarist Matt), Sea Glass (guitarist Matt again, Melinda Bronstein and Mike Firestations again), The Nameless Book (guitarist SJ Nelson), Sun Drawing (Matt again), Wintergreen (bassist Gareth Jones), and Basic Design (Matt again).

“World-weary yet innocent, blissful dreampop” – Uncut

“A sensory deprivation tank of experimental sometimes-pop” – Concrete Islands

“Like experiencing The Clientele’s ghostly pastoral elegies warped through the drone melodies of Stereolab" – PopLib

"A melancholy wonder" – The Guardian

"Fascinating, bold and experimental drone-pop" – Louder Than War

“Music for a rainy Tuesday afternoon of the soul” – Pete Paphides

The Winter Sprinter 2018 - full line up!

Presented by Fika Recordings, WIAIWYA and Gare du Nord

Tues 2 January - Fri 5 January at The Lexington, London, N1

4 day early bird passes available for £34.50 and individual day tickets for £11 adv at www.wegottickets.com/fikarecordings

Tues 2 Jan: The Surfing Magazines Pete Astor Jessica’s Brother

Wed 3 Jan: Steven Adams & The French Drops Fever Dream Charmpit

Thurs 4 Jan: Laetitia Sadier The Leaf Library Enderby’s Room

Fri 5 Jan: Darren Hayman Ralegh Long Picturebox

Four nights, three labels, twelve bands, DJs… the perfect antidote to the post-Christmas blues in the intimate surroundings of The Lexington. Thanks to Track & Field and Fortuna POP!; without their previous stewardships of the Winter Sprinter, we'd all be sat at home feeling glum the first week of January.

The Surfing Magazines The Surfing Magazines are a new garage-rock group consisting of two thirds of The Wave Pictures and one half of Slow Club. Consisting of David Tattersall and Franic Rozycki of The Wave Pictures, Charles Watson of Slow Club and drummer Dominic Brider. Not content with their already ferocious work rate, with three album releases in 2016 alone and over twenty in total between them; members of The Wave Pictures and Slow Club’s 11-track debut as Surfing Magazines is an intriguing and exciting mishmash of musical styles – soundtrack surf, weird pop and Americana. Pulling in influence from all of the great surf music of the 60s and the band’s musical inspirations of Bob Dylan and Lou Reed, the band are professedly ‘at war’ with today’s pretentious prog-indie-rock millionaires and bongo pop demigods. They intend to ‘rock out and blow your mind, and then mellow out and soothe your mind, then rock out again’.

Pete Astor Pete has made records as part of The Loft, The Weather Prophets, The Wisdom of Harry and Ellis Island Sound on Creation, Matador, Heavenly and more. He released Spilt Milk on Fortuna Pop in 2016 and has now signed to Tapete Records, home of The Clientele, Lloyd Cole and The Monochrome Set. Pete has been recording a new album with with James Hoare (Ultimate Painting, Proper Ornaments, Veronica Falls) on guitar and The Wave Pictures’ rhythm section of Franic Rozycki on bass and Jonny Helm on drums.

Jessica’s Brother Jessica’s Brother are singer songwriter Tom Charleston, bass player Charlie Higgs (formerly of The Ramshackle Union Band), and drummer Jonny 'Huddersfield' Helm (of The Wave Pictures). They make rock music with strong Americana influences, and a twist of English gothic darkness.

Steven Adams & The French Drops In the wake of critically acclaimed solo album, 2016's intimate 'Old Magick', and several years of one man shows, Steven Adams has a new band. He's joined by Daniel Fordham and David Stewart, rhythm section with psych-folk oddballs The Drink, guitarist Michael Wood (Singing Adams/The Leaf Library/Hayman Kupa Band) and a rotating cast of guest musicians. Steven Adams, aka, The Singing Adams, aka Steven James Adams, was in The Broken Family Band.

Fever Dream Fever Dream play dark, fuzzy, menacing music that blurs the line from noisy shoegaze to angular post-punk. Intense, melodic and expansive, they are a real treat live and have really good hair.

Charmpit Originally from California but now based out of South-East London, self-described ‘pop punk anarcuties’ Charmpit mash up sugary sweet melodies, lo-fi production and semi-serious subject matter to take a stab at society’s injustices whilst still keeping everything suitably fun. The band formed for the First Timers festival at DIY Space For London last year, a festival where every band on the line-up is playing their first show.

Laetitia Sadier Lætitia Sadier has arguably one of the most recognizable voices in music. Since arriving on the European indie scene back in 1991 with the first Stereolab EP, Super 45, Sadier’s vocal and lyrical approach has remained consistent: She applies her crystalline alto to lyrics that explore philosophy and political inequality through a Marxist lens. In Stereolab and as a solo artist, Sadier’s musical tastes have tended to skew nostalgic, mixing influences of 1960s pop from the U.S. and Brazil, easy listening, and German kosmische.

The Leaf Library The Leaf Library make droney, two-chord, pop that00!0!00s stuck halfway between the garage and the bedroom, all topped with lyrical love songs to buildings, stationery and the weather.

Enderby’s Room Enderby’s Room is fiddle player Dan Mayfield, once from rural Lincolnshire, but he has now found home living in London. His folk tinged songs reflect on his traditional folk upbringing. Mayfield has played violin for many artists including Daniel Johnston, Darren Hayman, The Wave Pictures, Allo Darlin’ and the Belles of London City morris dancers.

Darren Hayman Darren Hayman is a thoughtful, concise and detailed songwriter. He eschews the big, the bright and the loud for the small, twisted and lost. Hayman has taken a singular and erratic route through England’s tired and heartbroken underbelly. Formerly the singer-songwriter of Hefner, Darren Hayman has developed an increasingly idiosyncratic solo career. In recent years Darren has released four albums under his own name - Chants for Socialists where he set William Morris’ words to music; the sister remix album Dubs for Socialists; the album Florence, recorded in Italy; and an album for children called Folk Lullabies for Children and the Childless. As well as writing and recording as himself, Darren has also recorded an album with the band he’s formed with Emma Kupa of Mammoth Penguins (The Hayman Kupa Band), played drums for Papernut Cambridge, keyboards for The Great Electric, and released an EP with his experimental electronic duo Brute Love. Darren has also has been working on an ongoing, hugely ambitious folk project called Thankful Villages, visiting all fifty four 'Thankful Villages', a village in Britain where every soldier returned alive from World War One. Darren visited each of these and, focusing on village life, made a piece of music, a painting and a short film for every one. Some take the form of instrumentals inspired by the location, some are interviews with village residents set to music, others are new songs with lyrics or found local traditional songs.

Ralegh Long English Songwriter Ralegh Long released his recent album Upwards of Summer earlier this year, which won the Help Musician's UK / PledgeMusic Emerging Artist's Award. There is a marked change of pace from his previous records Hoverance and We Are in the Fields, with the jangle of chorus guitars, mandolins and anthemic hooks calling to mind bands such as R.E.M, The DB's, and the Go-Betweens. Written during a time of personal change, when Long was unsure if he was going to continue making music, Upwards of Summer is a revelation. He released his debut album Hoverance to critical acclaim in 2015. Leaving his adopted London, Long returned to his childhood home to write an album of singular grace and simplicity, steeped in natural imagery and "Spooky pastoralism" (MOJO). Hoverance and its follow-up E.P We Are in the Fields (2016) won praise from The Guardian for their “twilit ambience and demented beauty” and from Sky Arts as "calling to mind the atmosphere of Nick Drake".

Picturebox Melodic indie pop music from the cathedral city of Canterbury. Songs about girls, animals, football, anything, everything, nothing. They’ve released two albums on Gare Du Nord and are currently finishing off their third. Leader Robert Halcrow is also involved in the FXU2 project with Jack Hayter and Citizen Helene, and also plays bass for Papernut Cambridge and more recently Twink & The Bare Nodes.