Adam Francis Cuthbert (b. 1988) is a Detroit-based producer, DJ, and mix engineer whose sometimes spare, sometimes brutal music has been described as an “eerie dreamscape” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) and “like pneumatic drills tearing up pavement in the midst of a traffic jam” (The New York City Jazz Record). Their work fuses acoustic instruments with the infinite palette of synthesized electronic sound to create immersive sonic environments, drawing inspiration from the flow-state experience of open-world video games and garnering notice from NPR, The New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle, which finds it “hard to resist the vigor and inventiveness of his writing.”

Cuthbert has worked in music production, audio engineering, and composition roles with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Kronos Quartet, Friction Quartet, Michael Gordon, and John Adler, and has artistic credits in the recording catalogs of Detroit Underground, Ghostly International, 7K! Records, Cantaloupe Music, Innova, ModyWorks, Underground Producers Alliance, people places records, and slashsound.

Performing on trumpet and electronic instruments in their band, I-R, and DJ and solo project, Kuuma, Cuthbert has appeared throughout the Midwest and East Coast at DIY clubs, music festivals, and convention centers alike, such as Brooklyn’s Long Play and FONT Music Festivals, Toronto’s Intersection Music Festival, Noise Engineering’s Noiseblast Hour series, rave presenter Glotaku, and at comic and anime conventions such as Galaxycon and Isshocon.

Their sound works for dance and theatre have been performed with inmixedcompany, the Pioneers Go East Collective, at The Asia Society, La MaMa Moves Festival, Roulette Intermedium, Under St. Marks Theatre, 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, a full-stack studio music production course, and New Amsterdam Records’ Composers Lab on genre fluidity. Also active on the industry side, Cuthbert is co-founder of slashsound records, along with Daniel Rhode, and holds more than a decade of experience in the recording industry. Cuthbert lives in Detroit with their spouse, Rebecca, and cats, 千代 & 平三.

[pronouns: they/them]