Surprise Chef formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2017, playing cinematic soul and instrumental funk steeped in late-'60s soundtrack and library music moods. Education & Recreation (2022) or Friendship (2023) is the place to start — vintage analog warmth all the way through. Shop Surprise Chef vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Surprise Chef formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2017 around Lachlan Stuckey, Carl Lindeberg, Andrew Congues, Hudson Whitlock, and Jethro Curtin. They have been associated with the contemporary cinematic soul / instrumental funk revival scene alongside contemporaries like Khruangbin, the Budos Band, El Michels Affair, and the Brooklyn-based Big Crown Records roster (which they signed to in 2022 alongside their original College of Knowledge Records). Their cinematic, late-1960s/early-1970s soundtrack-influenced instrumental aesthetic - use of vintage analog recording approaches, classic soul and funk drumming, and atmospheric production - established their contemporary cinematic soul reputation.
Surprise Chef's sound combines instrumental funk, cinematic soul, jazz funk, soul jazz, library music, psychedelic soul, and Latin influences with virtuosic instrumental arrangements (dual guitar, keyboards, and percussion interplay), vintage analog production approaches (late-1960s/early-1970s sonic aesthetic), and arrangements drawing on classic 1960s/1970s film soundtrack and library music traditions.
College of Knowledge Records and Big Crown Records pressings of the Surprise Chef catalog have been issued in multiple color variant editions and limited deluxe pressings, with collector demand in cinematic soul collecting communities.
Listeners new to Surprise Chef typically start with Education & Recreation (2022) or Friendship (2023).
