Barry Adamson
Barry Adamson is a songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who first made his reputation as a sideman, working with Magazine and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds before he struck out on his own with a unique solo career. Adamson's music is richly atmospheric with a cinematic feel, and he made his solo debut with a mock soundtrack album, 1989's Moss Side Story, before going on to score real movies. Often blending organic instrumentation with loops and samples, Adamson's music often blends retro sounds with up-to-date production, fusing jazz and European pop on 1992's Soul Murder, experimenting with electronic music on 1996's Oedipus Schmoedipus, fashioning a seedy blend of jazz, pop, and dance music on 2002's The King of Nothing Hill, and fashioning '60s-influenced pop and soul on 2024's Cut to Black.
Barry Adamson was born on June 11, 1958 in Moss Side, Manchester, England. The son of a mixed-race couple, Adamson became fascinated with art and music at an early age, and wrote his first song when he was ten years old. In his teens, Adamson was studying graphic design at Manchester's Stockport Art College when he immersed himself in the city's burgeoning punk rock scene. When Howard Devoto, the co-founder of the Buzzcocks, quit the band to form his own group Magazine, Adamson came aboard as their bassist, and appeared on their 1977 hit single "Shot by Both Sides." When Magazine broke up in 1981, Adamson contributed to Devoto's 1983 solo album Jerky Versions of the Dream, and did studio work with new romantics Visage, former Buzzcocks frontman Pete Shelley, electronic popmeister M, and post-punk noisemakers the Birthday Party. After the Birthday Party split up, frontman Nick Cave asked Adamson to join his new group, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds made their debut with 1984's From Her to Eternity. Adamson would handle guitar, percussion, keyboards, and backing vocals as well as bass on the albums The Firstborn Is Dead (1985), Kicking Against the Pricks (1986), and Your Funeral … My Trial (1986) before he left the Bad Seeds in 1987 to strike out on his own.
Adamson signed with Mute Records, and his first salvo as a solo artist was the 1988 EP The Man with the Golden Arm; giving a preview of his fascination with film music, the title track was adapted from Elmer Bernstein's score for Otto Preminger's gritty 1955 drama about a drug-addicted jazz musician. For his first full-length solo effort, Adamson created 1989's Moss Side Story, which was conceived as a soundtrack to an autobiographical film that did not exist, dominated by instrumentals. The LP was well reviewed and led to Adamson being commissioned to score Carl Colpaert's 1991 thriller Delusion. Adamson also started producing other artists, starting with Australian singer-songwriter Dave Graney for 1989's My Life on the Plain. Adamson's 1992 album Soul Murder was more song oriented but still deeply informed by film music, and it was nominated for the 1992 Mercury Prize for outstanding releases from U.K. artists. Adamson wrote several pieces for Allison Anders' indie hit Gas Food Lodging, including one where he collaborated with J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. 1993's The Negro Inside Me was a six-song EP influenced by the rise of acid jazz; the studio band included future Trent Reznor collaborator Atticus Ross. Adamson was also tapped to produce the debut album from Ethyl Meatplow, 1993's Happy Days Sweetheart, led by future Geraldine Fibbers frontwoman Carla Bozulich. 1996's Oedipus Schmoedipus was another electronic-influenced faux film score, with Nick Cave, Carla Bozulich, and Pulp's Jarvis Cocker all contributing to the songwriting. Iconoclastic British filmmaker Derek Jarman invited Adamson to write the music for 1996's The Last of England, a bitter look at England under the rule of Margaret Thatcher. 1998's As Above, So Below was a moody, jazz influenced project, and the following year, Mute Records brought out The Murky World of Barry Adamson, a 12-track compilation drawn from his solo releases to date.
In 2002, Adamson returned with The King of Nothing Hill, a more-song oriented collection than his previous efforts. It was his last album for Mute, and he opted to form his own label and production company, Central Control International. Central Control's first release was 2006's Stranger on the Sofa, which followed in the model of The King of Nothing Hill. In 2008, Magazine staged a reunion tour and Adamson returned to the lineup, though when Devoto chose to extend the reunion past the initial run of dates, Adamson dropped out, in part to complete work on his own album, 2008's Back to the Cat. After years of scoring films, Adamson made his debut as a filmmaker, directing the 2011 short subject Therapist. (A second short from Adamson, The Swing the Hole and the Lie, premiered in 2014.) 2012 brought Adamson's solo effort I Will Set You Free, and he and Nick Cave worked together for the first time in years when Adamson was brought in to do a remix for the song "Palaces of Montezuma" by Cave's group Grinderman; the track appeared on Grinderman 2 RMX. The following year, Adamson played bass on two songs on Cave's album Push the Sky Away, and joined the Bad Seeds on their subsequent concert tour when health problems prevented Thomas Wydler from joining them.
Adamson was back to work as a solo artist with 2016's Know Where to Run, and a six-song EP, Love Sick Dick, was issued the following year. 2018's Memento Mori was a career-spanning anthology that included 15 songs from his solo era and one song each from Magazine and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. The U.K. label Live Here Now released a concert album taken from an October 2018 performance in London, 2019's Live at the Union Chapel, and a four-song EP, Steal Away, was issued in 2021. In 2022, Adamson published a memoir, Up Above the City, Down Beneath the Stars, which dealt with his life in music and his tumultuous existence off-stage. 2024's Cut to Black was a typically moody set of songs informed by '60s pop and soul sounds, with lyrics that touched on the themes from his autobiography.
© Mark Deming /TiVo
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Discographie
35 album(s) • Trié par Meilleures ventes
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Cut To Black
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Barry Adamson Incorporated le 17 mai 2024
Disponible en24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Barry Adamson (Live At The Union Chapel)
Pop - Paru chez LiveHereNow le 2 août 2019
Disponible en24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Steal Away EP
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 5 nov. 2021
Disponible en24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Therapist (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 30 mai 2011
Disponible en24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
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Broken Moments
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 2 sept. 2021
Disponible en24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
As Above So Below
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 23 juin 1998
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Oedipus Schmoedipus
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 6 août 1996
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Back To The Cat
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 22 avr. 2008
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Love Sick Dick
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 14 avr. 2017
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Moss Side Story
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 6 mars 1989
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
King of Nothing Hill
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 12 déc. 2006
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Know Where To Run
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 18 mars 2016
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Delusion (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Bandes originales de films - Paru chez Mute le 17 juil. 1991
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Can't Get Loose
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 1 janv. 1998
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
The Murky World of Barry Adamson
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 1 mai 1999
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Memento Mori (Anthology 1978 - 2018)
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 26 oct. 2018
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Soul Murder
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 12 août 1997
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
I Will Set You Free
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 14 févr. 2012
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
The Hymn of the 7th Illusion
Électronique ou concrète - Paru chez Cold Spring le 20 oct. 2017
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Stranger On The Sofa
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Mute le 27 juin 2006
Disponible en16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo