Cate Le Bon (UK)

Welsh singer-songwriter-producer Cate Le Bon, an architect of sound, is constantly exploring uncharted territory with her music; she is one of the most exciting indie-rock, baroque-pop, and psych-folk artists of the past twenty years. With her art-pop and avant-rock albums, she has won the acclaim of both critics and audiences alike. The singer-songwriter—who is also a renowned producer having worked with St. Vincent, Wilco, and Dry Cleaning—will perform her first solo concert in Hungary with her 2025 album *Michelangelo Dying*. St. Vincent also features on her latest song, “Always The Same.”

Cate Le Bon (born Cate Timothy; she chose her stage name after Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon) is an artist who defies categorization and emerged as one of the great talents of the Welsh music scene in the second half of the 2000s. The singer-songwriter, who performs in both English and Welsh, first appeared on Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys’s 2007 solo tour and later performed with Rhys’s synth-pop project, Neon Neon. She then collaborated with Megan Childs and Richard James, members of another prominent Welsh psych-pop band, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, and thus launched her solo career from a high starting point following her short-lived band, The Secret Show.

As an architect of sound, she creates emotionally charged soundscapes in her music through abstraction, texture, and timbre. Her soundscapes are always different. To date, Cate Le Bon has released seven studio albums, including the 2019 Mercury Prize-nominated *Reward* and the critically acclaimed 2022 album *Pompeii*.

Her unique voice is multifaceted and always attuned to the emotional currents that shape her art. Her work as a producer—on Wilco’s *Cousin*, Horsegirl’s *Phonetics On and On*, and St. Vincent’s Grammy-winning *All Born Screaming*—clearly demonstrates the trust placed in her to transform soundscapes into intimate, unique universes.

Le Bon has also been involved in several side projects, including collaborations with the touring musicians of BANANA, other well-known Welsh artists (Sweet Baboo, H. Hawkline), as well as members of Warpaint and the former Red Hot Chili Peppers; Drinks was a post-punk band she formed with her ex-boyfriend, Tim Presley, also known as White Fence.

Her latest, seventh album, *Michelangelo Dying*, released last year, was born out of raw emotions and vulnerability. She transformed her breakup with Presley into a sparkling cycle of songs—a meditation on love, loss, and the unknowable self. The song “Ride” even features a true Welsh legend, John Cale. At this concert, Le Bon once again invites us into a world where emotion overrides form, and abstraction becomes its own unique truth.