Mark Chadwick has spent decades fronting Levellers with fire in his voice and politics in his pen — but his new solo album Ouse Dragon is something else entirely. It’s a drift into the uncanny. A headphone‑only expedition through forgotten corners of the South Downs, where folklore, tragedy and spectral beauty bleed into one another.

Released 21 August via On The Fiddle Recordings, Ouse Dragon is a six‑track suite of ambient storytelling, electronic drift and acoustic unease. It’s dreamlike, disorientating, and strangely intimate — the sound of a songwriter stepping away from the roar of the crowd and into the shadows of a place that has shaped him.

Chadwick frames the album as a guided walk through Lewes — “a small vibrant town with a river that slowly drifts through hills with buildings ancient and modern.” It’s a place he describes as sitting in the “forgotten parts of the South of England,” overshadowed by louder neighbours, yet full of stories that cling to the stones.

Those stories — murder, misadventure, possession, spirits, other dimensions — form the backbone of Ouse Dragon. “All of the stories herein are true,” he insists. And you believe him. The songs feel lived‑in, not invented.

The album opens with its nine‑minute title track, a slow‑creeping piece of eerie magic that sets the tone: strummed acoustic guitar dissolving into drifting keyboards, keening noises, and ghostly textures that feel like mist rolling off the Downs.

‘Chrysanthemums & Diadems’ follows — woozy, dramatic, and punctured by an unexpected police interruption that snaps the dream in half. It’s unsettling in the best way.

‘Dance Of The Crows’ shifts into pastoral hallucination, while ‘Leap’ — the album’s most conventional moment — pairs sweet melody with lyrics heavy with sadness. ‘Bearing Witness’ pulses with folkish insistence before the closing track ‘Paxos Room’ drags the listener deep into the darker recesses of imagination.

These aren’t songs so much as episodes — fragments of memory, myth and mood stitched together with Chadwick’s unmistakable voice.

Fans expecting Levellers‑style folk‑punk fire will find something quieter, stranger and more cinematic here. Ouse Dragon is Chadwick exploring the edges of his craft: ambient storytelling, leftfield electronics, and the kind of headphone‑only immersion that rewards stillness. It’s a record that asks you to stop, listen, and let the river take you.

Ouse Dragon is out 21 August 2026 on CD and all streaming platforms.

Tracklist:

Ouse Dragon
Chrysanthemums & Diadems
Dance Of The Crows
Leap
Bearing Witness
Paxos Room