You’d be forgiven for thinking that everything was and would remain quiet in Chapterhouse-land, what with the OG shoegazers having done the reunion thing way back in 2010 and having cleared out the archives with their expansive six CD Chronology box set in 2023. You might have missed out on that set what with it being, well, a box of six CDs and the general aversion of Cherry Red Records to putting their big archival sets up on streaming services.

But the contents of the set have actually been making their way onto streaming services quietly and piecemeal over the last couple years. Most of the contents of the first two discs, entitled Freefall, Sunburst & Whirlpool and Pearl, Mesmerise And Courtyard Demos showed up last month as Whirlpool, Before and After. I think Blood Music And B-Sides and Pentamerous Metamorphosis – discs three and four – have always been there, and disc five – Rarities and Remixes – was made available in January 2022 (before the box came out?) and disc six – Demos 1994-95 – showed up in January 2023. At least that’s what the Apple Music fine print tells me. In any case, pretty much the whole of the box is now available, albeit in slightly different branding and configuration.

The band addressed this roll out via Facebook in February:

Chronology is going live to all the streaming services tomorrow. It’s being released as 4 separate albums which contain all of Chapterhouse’s releases in addition to 20+ previously unreleased demos. These will join the remaster of Pentamerous Metamorphosis and be compiled into an artist playlist in the order of the original boxset, on the main platforms, plus a remastered cover version that was unavailable to include on the CD release.

Chapterhouse @ Facebook

So surely that’s everything in the cupboards, right? Six discs for a band that only released two proper albums? No, apparently not! Yesterday, Sonic Cathedral announced a new Chapterhouse EP coming out on May 9. It’s called White House Demos and is made up of the band’s first four recordings, ever.

They were the first songs we wrote as a band. At the time our live set consisted of Stooges and ’60s garage-psych cover versions which we mixed with these original songs. When the boxset was released, Christian (Savill of Slowdive) got in touch and reminded me of these demos and how much he loved them. He was probably the first person I gave a cassette copy to. He still rehearses and records at The White House and was going in for a session the following week, so I asked if he could ask the owner/engineer Martin Nichols to check if he still had them in his archive. Thankfully he did.

Stephen Patman, Chapterhouse
Chapterhouse / White House Demos @ Rough Trade Records

To coincide with the release, the band have released a video to go with “See That Girl”, a seven-minute psych jam for the ages.

And will this be all we get from Chapterhouse? Maybe… maybe not? Andrew Sherriff and Stephen Patman were recently interviewed by Peruvian music blog Peru Avant Garde; the conversation mostly focused on the band’s history, but of course they closed the with the question (English version follows the Spanish):

Future plans, ¿maybe recording a new music?, and final words and thanks again for the interview.

ANDY:  I’m keen to record some new music and write some new songs, and there have been murmurs about making some new Chapterhouse music. It would be nice to do a South American tour as our music seems to remain popular and resonate there. I have always loved the South American countries that I have visited, but we have never toured there, which is a great shame!

STEPHEN: We are talking about writing some new songs as Chapterhouse and some starts have been made on that. We’re still good friends but live in different parts of the UK so it’s a slow process.

CHAPTERHOUSE INTERVIÚ :. El concepto de shoegaze se ha convertido en un montón de golosinas insípidas. @ Peru Avant Garde