| Intro | British composer |
| Is |
Musician Composer |
| From | United Kingdom |
| Type | Music |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 8 June 1979 |
| Age: | 41 years |
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
- Three Boxes and a Cube (2004–2007) comprising Box 1: The Amputee (2004), Box 2: The Foetus on the Sofa (2007), Box 3: The Mirror Dwarf (2006) and Cube (2007). Collapsible steel frame notated scores.
- The Real Imaginary Framed Existence of Ringhead and Loon (2005). Large comic book score, first performed and recorded by de la Cour, Michael Finnissy and Alan Witts.
- Clown, a circus (2006), scored circus show using Cut-up techniques influenced by William S. Burroughs. Utilizes midget piano-stool pushers, surreal violence, ‘throat percussionists’ and quotations from the Marquis de Sade.
- H: Tokyo Dwift (2006) for solo piano. Japanese Hentai, commissioned and first performed by Michael Finnissy.
- Nursery Rhyme piano miniatures (2006), first performed by Mark Knoop.
- Tic (2007), solo for cello vocal. Written for Laura Moody. First performed at the Jack Lyons concert hall, York.
- Beat me (Cut and Perm’ no.1) (2007) for solo piano and rape alarm. Written for Mark Knoop. First performed as part of the BMIC’s Cutting Edge series.
- Verscharfte Vernehmung/Cowboy George (2008) For B flat clarinet/Bass clarinet/actor. Written for Vicky Wright and Peter Willcock. First performed at the National Portrait Gallery (London).
- L’Exorcisme du Momo (2008) for pipe organ/piano/contrabass clarinet/B flat clarinet/voice/drum for Libra Duo Mark Knoop and Carl Rosman.
- Block for viola solo (2012). Written for Paul Silverthorne.
- “Holy Toledo” (2014) for solo piano. Written for Ian Pace.
- Corporate Talent Factor’s Next Top Idol!™ (2015). Commissioned by MATA Festival.
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.
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.