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Shadows and Reflections (2017, 41 mins)
Pt 1: Sounds of the Shadow (20’26)
Pt 2: Sounds of the Sun (20’46)

Shadows and Reflections develops from an audio-visual collaboration with the painter Andy Fullalove  exhibited at Bradford Cathedral in October 2016. The exhibition comprised a series of fourteen paintings and soun that responded to the newly restore altarpiece by William Morris as well as the priceless stained glass windows in the Cathedral made my Morris’ company which include designs by Morris himself as well as Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Peter Marshall and Philip Webb. During the creative process we each exchanged sound and images on a regular basis, discussed work in progress but left each other to develop work independently.

In the composition process I was particularly drawn to the layering and textures of Fullalove’s paintings as well as their use of colour. I also found a correlation between the use of light in Fullalove’s paintings and the ways in which light streams through the stained glass windows  of the cathedral providing coloured halos and auras around concrete architectural forms all around the building. I was particularly interested in the ways in which the quality of light imperceptibly changed within the building over time.

In the two parts of the work I wanted to induce a sense of mediation, contemplation and reflection.  I wanted the sound to be constantly, though in some instances imperceptibly, changing so that one remained mindful of the music rather than allowing it to drift in to the periphery of one’s consciousness. I was reminded of Alan Wallace’s description of Samatha meditation as a “contemplative technology” designed to calm and stabilize the mind and to cultivate “attentional stability and vividness”.  I intend the music of Shadows and Reflections to cultivate a similar state. For me, the focusing on a single organ timbre over an extended duration encourages a more attentive perception as the ear is drawn in to the micro-fluctuations within each of the extended phrases. One’s sense of time is dilated and there is a sense of envelopment within the soundworld.

“…we find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates.” Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, ‘In Praise of Shadows’.

Organ samples performed and recorded by Monty Adkins

Images Andy Fullalove (http://www.andyfullalove.com/)

Mastered by Dominique Bassal

This will be available as a high-res download (96/24) and cassette from Cronica

Scheduled release Septembe 2017

cat: AD.11

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a year at ushers hill (2017, 42 mins)

Scheduled release August 2017

cat. AD.010

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Lepidoptera (2016, 42 mins)

Lepidoptera is a collaborative co-composed work with Terri Hron for recorder and electronics made of five movements, each referring to families of butterflies and moths. The nature and character of the recorder is similar, with its varying tonal colours, and its transformations from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. The consort of recorders used belongs together. They have a broad sound with strong upper partials; there are intimate, almost inexplicable sonic and physical connections between the different instruments. This inspired similar connections and interactions between the recorder(s) and the electronics.
The five movements are families of relationships, with no two performances ever the same as they are reconfigured and retuned anew for each iteration. In Saturniid, the recorder rides the crest of an acousmatic wave, sometimes submerged within the mix and at other points rising momentarily above it. Ephemeroptera delicately counterpoints the solo recorder and its fixed environment. Zygoptera and Anisoptera have an algorithmic mobile that creates a stream of sound files that feed into the larger tributary of sound processing, shaped by multiple envelopes and parameter changes. Lepidoptera combines and morphs these different approaches.

1 – Zygoptera (4:12)
2 – Lepidoptera (8:13)
3 – Saturniid (8:41)
4 – Anisoptera (10:09)
5 – Ephemeroptera (10:41)

http://www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_16136/

Release date: February 24th 2016

Mastered by Dominique Bassal

cat: AD.09

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Unfurling Streams (2015, 43 mins)

Unfurling Streams is a series of compositions based on recordings of percussion instruments made by Jonny Axelsson and Monty Adkins with photographs and artwork by Stephen Harvey.

The work is inspired by a line by e.e. cummings, “for whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always our self we find in the sea.” In Unfurling Streams, the ‘stream’ reflects life—something continually flowing, evolving, and changing. Eddies, currents, pools and spray also are suggestive of ways in which the stream makes its way through the landscape and are clearly reflected in the images and sounds created for this project.

Cover image by Stephen Harvey
Mastered by Dominique Bassal

Cronica 094 (March 2015)
Format: Deluxe limited edition CD, photographs in handmade box (edition of 24); Limited edition CD (200); Digital download of audio and images.

http://www.cronicaelectronica.org/?p=094

https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/unfurling-streams

cat: AD.08

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Borderlands (2015, 38 mins)

Cover image by Laurent Segretier
Mastered by Dominique Bassal

AB058
Format: Digital Download

http://www.audiobulb.com/albums/AB058/AB058.htm

cat: AD.07

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Rift Patterns (2014, 47 mins)

Rift Patterns is all about the psychogeographical exploration of places and how they impact on our identity and feelings. Psychogeography has historically been associated with the exploration of our cities and the ‘drift’, and has been described by Joseph Hart as “a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities… just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape”. In Rift Patterns we wanted to continue our drift from the city, into the country and into our inner world of thoughts and relationships explored through Adkins’ audio and an interactive iBook with text by Deborah Templeton, video by Jason Payne and photography by Stephen Harvey.

This album is a follow up to my EP on Cronica ‘Residual Forms’.

Cover image by Stephen Harvey
Mastered by Dominique Bassal

AB051
Format: Digital Download and iBook

http://www.audiobulb.com/albums/AB051/AB051.htm

cat: AD.06

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Residual Forms (2014, 20 mins)

Residual Forms is influenced by the psychogeographical notion of the ‘drift’ – an aimless wondering around the city, exploring its hidden resonances, which lay just beneath the surface. As a runner I often explore new cities by just taking off for a couple of hours, going where I feel or where looks interesting no matter how tired I am or what the time is. Often, at night the city plays tricks with the mind. Running through unknown streets as darkness falls one recalls half remembered places, past memories blur the present experience to create one’s own fiction of place.

Although Residual Forms is not a portrait of any one city, it is influenced by the psychogeographical writings of Iain Sinclair and his approach to London, which stems back to the visionary writing of William Blake. Sinclair portrays London as a city inseparable from its history both real and imagined. Merlin Coverley writes that in Sinclair’s work ‘London’s topography is reconstituted through a superimposition of local and literary history, autobiographical elements and poetic preoccupations to create an idiosyncratic and highly personal vision of the city.’

Residual Forms is a psychosonographic portrait of a city that takes listeners on their own imaginary drift.

Cover image by Stephen Harvey
Mastered by Dominique Bassal

Cronica 086
Format: Free Digital Download

http://www.cronicaelectronica.org/?p=086

cat: AD.05

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Four Shibusa (2012, 44 mins)

Four Shibusa is a haunting and moving album that moves seamlessly between the clarinets of Jonathan Sage and Heather Roche and exquisitely crafted electronic soundworlds. This studio album is the result of a year-long collaboration with the visual artist Pip Dickens and takes as its starting-point the Japanese concept of ‘shibusa’ – a term that describes the inherent simplicity and beauty in everyday objects. The surface simplicity of the music belies a real sophistication in sound design and meticulous balance between delicate evolving textures and melodic writing. Heard as a whole this is an enveloping musical tour de force [audiobulb].

1. Sendai Threnody
2. Entangled Symmetries
3. Kyoto Roughcut
4. Permutations

Cover image by Pip Dickens
Mastered by Dominique Bassal

AB040
Format: CD & Digital Download

http://www.audiobulb.com

cat: AD.04

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fragile.flicker.fragment (2011, 52 mins)

fragile.flicker.fragment is a deeply moving album. The fruit of an expert musician who has both a technical and intuitive grasp on sound design and composition. Every frequency is beautifully catered for in these tracks of shimmering acousmatic beauty and deeply resonating foundations. Each layer occupying its own place whilst building the overall acoustic experience. Adkins’ quest to reconcile abstract electronic sound material and melody is explored in this album. This is further strengthened by the inherent visual quality to the tracks, reflecting the relationship between his work and paintings by Pip Dickens [audiobulb].

1. memory box
2. etched in air
3. remnant
4. suspended edges
5. first snow
6. ode
7. forensic embers
8. torn mosaic
9. memory etching

Cover image by Oliver Jones
Mastered by Dominique Bassal

Listen on Spotify here.

AB035
Format: CD & Digital Download

http://www.audiobulb.com

cat: AD.03

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Five Panels (2009, 46 mins)

Five Panels  is work based on the paintings of Mark Rothko. The pieces seek to explore a limited palette of sounds focussing on their spatial and musical interplay rather than sound processing techniques. Each work is concerned with drawing the listener into the sonic environment rather than leading them through a gesture filled musical space. Each of the works is dedicated to a member of my family – somewhat like a sonic Polaroid.

1. panel no.1 (to luke)
2. panel no.2 (to ethan)
3. panel no.3 (to annis)
4. panel no.4 (to rose)
5. panel no.5 (to finn)

Five Panels was nominated for the 2010 Qwartz Awards Paris (Best Album Category)

Format: CD & Digital Download

Mastered by Dominique Bassal

cat: AD.02

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[60]Project (2008, 60 mins)

The [60]Project was conceived and curated by Adkins in 2008 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Pierre Schaeffer’s musique concrete. Sixty sound artists were invited to contribute a single sound. All of the sounds were then made available to all artists involved to process as they wanted. Adkins then took all of this material to INA-GRM and mixed the final 60-minute work. Adkins used a part of every sound contributed, allowing himself only to edit and transpose material a small amount to enable smooth transitions.

Invited artists were: A_dontigny, AGF, Lars Åkerlund, Michael Alcorn, Javier Álvarez,Miguel Azguime, Natasha Barrett, François Bayle, Gonzalo Biffarella, Ludger Brümmer, Mira Calix, Christian Calon,Lawrence Casserley, Richard Chartier,Rhodri Davies, Vladislav Delay, Donnacha Dennehy, Francis Dhomont, Lawrence English, eRikm, Dror Feiler, Christian Fennesz, Ambrose Field, Iris Garrelfs, Gilles Gobeil, Kink Gong, Jonty Harrison, Tim Hecker, Erdem Helvacıoğlu, Zoë Irvine,Christina Kubisch, Diane Labrosse,Andrew Lewis, Mats Lindström, Francisco López, Eric Lyon, Stephan Mathieu, Adrian Moore, Åke Parmerud, Gert-Jan Prins,Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Pedro Rebelo, Steve Roden, Sébastien Roux,Scanner, Janek Schaefer, Conrad Schnitzler, Si-cut.db, Wayne Siegel,Rodrigo Sigal, Sogar, Pete Stollery, Paulina Sundin, Kees Tazelaar, Terre Thaemlitz,Todor Todoroff, Kasper T Toeplitz, David Toop, Germán Toro Pérez, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Hans Tutschku, Rodrigo Cicchelli Velloso, Marc Weiser, Yeoh Yin Pin, John Young, Christian Zanési.

http://www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0898/

Cover image by Jon Bottone
Mastered by Dominique Bassal

Format: CD

cat: AD.01

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Mondes Inconnus (2006, 86 minutes)

1. Mapping (1995-97)
2. Aerial (2002)
3. Deepfield (2000)
4. Still Time (2001)
5. Melt (1994)
6. Symbiont (2002)
7. Silk to Steel (2005)
8. Cortex (2004-5)

Cover image by Miles Chalcraft
Mastered by Dominique Bassal

Format: DVD-A

http://www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0679/