CDR In Conversation with Tony Nwachukwu

About the experience

Our current season of CDR Sessions culminates with a very special moment: CDR founder Tony Nwachukwu takes the artist chair for the first time in our history. For those new to CDR Sessions, each event includes an in-depth, production-focused interview with a guest artist, exploring their career and creative process. The talk is flanked by openCDR, where producers and artists of all levels and abilities have the opportunity to play their own music on some of the best club sound systems across the UK. All genres and styles welcomed! As co-founder of Attica Blues, Nwachukwu helped shape a defining moment in British electronic music with their landmark 1997 debut album Blueprints, released via Mo’ Wax. Fusing jazz harmonic language, hip-hop production methodology and African rhythmic consciousness, the record established a new vocabulary in British Black music that continues to resonate across contemporary production culture. Alongside remix work for artists including The Cinematic Orchestra, Jazzanova, Duran Duran, The Lightning Seeds and U.N.K.L.E., he has consistently moved between underground innovation and wider industry collaboration. In 2002 he founded CDR, transforming an intimate East London club night into a pioneering platform for works-in-progress that has since supported artists such as Maya Jane Coles, SBTRKT, Floating Points and Sampha. Parallel to his community-building work, he developed a significant career in higher education as Course Leader in Music Technology and Production at the University of East London. Now, as the anniversary of Blueprints approaches, he steps forward with his long-awaited debut solo album Habitus_1, reflecting on identity, memory and artistic formation. This session also marks the final CDR at Corsica Studios, our long-standing home. After the conversation and openCDR, we will be staying open for two extra hours for a farewell gathering with music, mingling and a moment to celebrate everything that has been built within these walls. Join us on 24 March for this one-off evening with Tony Nwachukwu, flanked by openCDR: your chance to bring along your works-in-progress and hear them played on Corsica’s world-class sound system. We keep our events as accessible as possible, but if you are able, we would appreciate your support of CDR with a £5 donation ticket. Every contribution helps us continue creating space for producers and artists to connect, learn, and grow.