Chad Valley is Hugo Manuel's solo project. He's from Oxford, he also fronts the Oxford band Jonquil, and he started this in 2010. Warm, hazy synth-pop that got filed under chillwave, with lush atmospherics softening his vocal. 'Shell Suite' is off Equatorial Ultravox (Cascine, 20 June 2011), the record that brought him wider attention. Drowned in Sound called it 'a consistently blissful and thrilling EP'. The song ended up on the soundtrack of Warm Bodies, the 2013 zombie romance. Then came Young Hunger (2012, with guests including Twin Shadow and El Perro del Mar), Entirely New Blue (2015) and Imaginary Music (2018), and in 2020 he put out The Starlight Night under his own name.
From the notes for Episode 14 · fact-checked Oct 4, 2026.
