Adam de la Cour

Adam de la Cour (born June 8, 1979) is a British composer, performer and filmmaker. He studied composition with Michael Finnissy at the University of Southampton where he gained his Ph.D. in 2006.

Music

de la Cour has written for various ensembles and soloists across the UK, the US and Europe including Michael Finnissy, Mark Knoop, Ian Pace, Jonathan Powell, Paul Silverthorne, Libra Duo (Mark Knoop/Carl Rosman), IXION Ensemble, CoMA, Reconsil and Bearthoven.

de la Cour is predominantly interested in absurdity and satire, often writing pieces that involve himself as performer/participant and often victim, such as in The Best of "Futility Music" - Volume 1, Batsu!!! Humiliating Music for Guitar and Corporate Talent Factor's Next Top Idol!™. de la Cour's music embraces a wide range of influences including elements of the New Complexity, free improvisation and heavy metal. The visual aspect of his early work shows a strong affinity to dada and surrealism especially in reference to the role of the 'object' with pieces such as Three Boxes and a Cube. de la Cour often creates performance scenarios of an absurdist or 'Pataphysical nature and has a keen interest in Comics, producing a series of comic (graphic notation) scores.

Performances

Festivals de la Cour has been involved in include ISCM World Music Days, MATA Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, London Contemporary Music Festival, TRANSIT (Belgium), Borealis (Norway), Bergen International Festival, Melbourne Festival (Australia), London Ear, Tête à Tête Opera Festival, Klang (Denmark), Cheltenham Music Festival, Notation Happening (Belgium), Frontiers (Birmingham), nyMusikk-Only Connect Festival of Sound (Norway), Pyramidale (Berlin), Soundwaves (Brighton), The Voice and the Lens (Birmingham/London), Spitalfields Festival, Stoke Newington Contemporary Music Festival, The Process (Lithuania), Miniere Sonore (Sardinia), and Atomino (Germany). de la Cour has been broadcast on Resonance FM and recorded for BBC Radio 3 premiering works by Michael Finnissy and Chris Newman. de la Cour has performed with musicians such as Jane Manning, Mark Knoop, Lore Lixenberg, Linda Hirst, John Edwards, and Steve Noble, as well as ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble +-, and The Letter Piece Company. He also performs in the bands Zipperface, Nostrilatu, The Bishop of ****, and is a composer/performer for Arco Collective.

de la Cour is active as a vocalist, electric guitarist, and clown, performing works by Michael Finnissy, Chris Newman, Matthew Shlomowitz, Alwynne Pritchard, Neil Luck, Claudia Molitor, Johannes Kreidler and Trond Reinholdtsen.

de la Cour has performed Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire (voice) with Ensemble Reconsil, with past performances in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and The Arnold Schoenberg Centre in Vienna.

Selected works

Film and visual work

de la Cour has projected work at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) as part of Comica 2008, and has exhibited at Southampton's Artvaults and the Centre for Recent Drawing (C4RD). de la Cour has collaborated with the artist Bruce McLean producing the film Drumstick, which has been exhibited at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, and as part of a live performance at the Whitechapel Gallery, London.

de la Cour's short genre film, Mr Topps (2016), is distributed by the Independent film company, Troma Entertainment (Creators of The Toxic Avenger), and features a cameo by Troma President Lloyd Kaufman. It is available on their streaming service Troma Now.

de la Cour's films have been screened at festivals across the UK and abroad, including Supernormal, Canterbury Fringe, Cheyenne Zombie Fest (Wyoming), and the Nihilist Film Festival (Los Angeles).

squib-box

de la Cour is a founding member of squib-box, alongside Federico Reuben and Neil Luck. Squib-box is a cooperative and netlabel dedicated to the production and dissemination of radical and avant-garde music, regardless of its genre.

Benny the Clown

de la Cour appears in many of his public performances – particularly with Zipperface – as his alter ego Benny the Clown.

Benny is a traditionally made up whiteface (grotesque) clown, with oversize shoes, gaudily coloured baggy trousers and an enormous red fright-wig. Benny has his own unique facial make-up. He is often heard to speak in a broad Brooklyn accent, which can be heard in his early "...play this with your eyes closed" videos.[1]

In November 2007, Benny appeared with his new sidekick Percy the Ringmaster at the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall to perform a specially choreographed 8 minute skit to music composed by de la Cour.

Benny and Percy have since appeared at the launches of the Spitalfields Festival (December 2008, Spitalfields Market, London - with pianist Mark Knoop) and Brighton's Soundwaves Festival (Brighton Station main concourse, June 2008 - with a band featuring Alan Bates on Double Bass and Mr Pump on Keyboard).

Additional information

de la Cour was a featured artist in Richard Cork's article "The Stubborn Art" in the Financial Times' Drawing supplement, and was interviewed in the online magazine CrushtoPulp.

References

  1. ↑ YouTube - "...play this with your eyes closed" with Benny the clown
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.