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Adam Cuthbert
Adam Cuthbert (b. 1988) is a Detroit-based composer, mix engineer, and sound designer whose sometimes spare, sometimes brutal music has been described as an “eerie dreamscape” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) and “the lead-footed revving of double decker buses” (Acid Ted).
Their work fuses acoustic instruments with control voltage to create immersive sonic environments, drawing inspiration from the infinite palette of synthesized electronic sound, and the flow-state experience of open-world video games, garnering notice from The New York Times, NPR, Backstage Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle, which finds it “hard to resist the vigor and inventiveness of his writing.”
Cuthbert has collaborated with cutting-edge performers (Bang on a Can, Friction Quartet, John Adler, Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble), and has artistic credits in the recording catalogs of Ghostly International, 7K! Records, Cantaloupe Music, Innova, ModyWorks, Underground Producers Alliance, people | places records, and slashsound.
Cuthbert performs on trumpet and electronic instruments with skullcap5050, I-VT, and kuuma throughout Brooklyn’s DIY club circuits. Their sound works for dance and theatre have been performed with Maura Donohue’s inmixedcompany, at The Asia Society, La MaMa Moves Festival, Roulette Intermedium, and the New York Theatre Workshop. Creative mentors include Bill Ryan, Todd Reynolds, Raz Mesinai, and Michael Gordon, and artist development fellowships include the Bang on a Can Summer Festival at MASS MoCA, Underground Producers Alliance’s Ghost Program, and New Amsterdam Records’ Composers Lab on genre fluidity.
Also active on the industry side, Cuthbert is Licensing Manager for the Grammy-winning avant-classical label Cantaloupe Music, and together with Daniel Rhode is co-founder of slashsound records. They live in Detroit with their spouse, Rebecca, and cats, 健三 & 千代.
