selected press excerpts

for press inquiries: admin [at] slashsound.net


“I sat up in my desk chair… for “Synthetic Flora,” an eerie dreamscape for trumpet and electronics” – THE NEW YORKER (Alex Ross)

“A fascinating hybrid weave of surprising sounds and fluid borders… can only be described in terms of its arresting atmospherics. Calming, alluring and sophisticated all at once” – NPR (First Listen)

"I have hardly ever heard examples where the two different counterparts merge together so very well. This is not ‘acoustic’ plus ‘electronic’ – it is both together forming a new, unified, sound." – AMBIENTBLOG

“Detroit duo I-R aggressively sparred with analog synthesizers on pieces like ‘Flail’, which combined on-screen imagery of street maps with beats that sounded like pneumatic drills tearing up pavement in the midst of a traffic jam”THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

“Modular synths, field recordings, and a trumpet like liquid gold make up most of these sublime soundscapes by the founder of the slashsound label, now based in Detroit. Every track is a highlight, but Yin, which features the questing violin of Kelly Rhode, is sheer heaven.” – AN EARFUL (Best Electronic of 2021)

“The show's most powerful element is sound designer and composer Adam Cuthbert's richly textured musical score, which provides a thrilling soundscape that alternately energizes, engulfs, and steers the overall proceedings." – BACKSTAGE

“Top of my list [on the 2020 Bang on a Can Marathon] was Adam Cuthbert’s Kinetic Flora, a work that live mixes a moody trumpet solo with analog electronics. With the trumpet’s mute seemingly hard-wired into a tangle of electrical doodads on the desk in front of him, Cuthbért created a subtly manipulated, laidback sound world that was ten minutes of shimmering pleasure.” – MUSICAL AMERICA

“Kuuma is an anime-style avatar who appears in the evening’s video projections, melding into the vibrant Group of Seven’s frescoes on the church’s walls. Adam Francis Cuthbert’s live processed trumpet triggers and blends musical loops, flirting with the timbral quality of video games.” – THE WIRE

"BLOC is... the lead-footed revving of double decker buses, the whine of deliveroo scooters, the roar of street cleaning trucks. A love affair with harsh reflective soundscapes. An IDM techno fest of the scraping of your soul." ACID TED

“Saul Steinberg's famous New Yorker cover showing a supposed void between America's coasts should be redrawn with a giant neon sign pointing to Allendale, MI” – AN EARFUL

"Much of the music recalls Vangelis’ airy, ethereal soundtrack to Ridley Scott’s brilliant film Blade Runner... It breaks down the boundaries of time to create something that respects the past while wholly residing in the present and even future."  THE BIG TAKEOVER

"ravishing in its smooth sonic beauty... his music speaks for itself and has no need of any elucidation by biography" – MUSICURATUM

"A similar taste for frenzied repetition helped shape Adam Cuthbért's “Universe Explosion,” a musical sketch of all of cosmological history compressed into 10 minutes... it was hard to resist the vigor and inventiveness of his writing for two string quartets"SF CHRONICLE

"sometimes spare and sometimes brutal... gives Trent Reznor a run for his money."  – AN EARFUL 

"They draw power from their grounding and move freely within Cuthbért's thicket of music. The sonic and physical energies are tremendous." – INFINITE BODY

“Ms. Donohue responded in movement while the composer Adam Cuthbert attended to two tables of electronic equipment, building a layered, thrumming soundscape. All three wore silver-and-red athletic gear.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES

“woozy” – THE NEW YORK TIMES

"deeply calming, and evoked a pulsating orb repeatedly expanding and contracting"SF CLASSICAL VOICE 

"a remarkable work... perfectly integrated with the electronics and fully exploiting a combined sonic palette that convincingly captures its monumental subject matter." – NEW CLASSIC LA

"a full-scale spectralist assault is launched in the processed spectra of the baritone sax and flute sounds in location sharing." – ICAREIFYOULISTEN

"'Location sharing' d'Adam Cuthbert est une composition intrigante, mellifluante sur un socle rythmique massif, très Reichien, avec des envolées graves piquetées de griffures, des boursouflures proliférantes, comme de laitues sonores monstrueuses.." INACTUELLES (Fr.)

“Trumpeter Samuel Wells was featured on three of the evening’s works… of these, Cuthbert’s [rikai] was the most successful… his layering became masterful as the piece gained steam. there were times of almost Mikel Rouse-ian pop melodies at the piece’s glorious conclusion.” KC METROPOLIS

"This concert ended with three [In C] remixes arranged [by Adam Cuthbert] to involve live performers, yielding a kaleidoscopic refraction of this landmark minimalist work, from the hypnotic crescendo of Zoe Keating's "Zinc" to the childlike clowning of Jad Abumrad's "Counting in C." THE WASHINGTON POST

Lost and Guided packs an emotional wallop into its 90 minute running time. Rather than the brief, often heavily politically-tinged news stories and articles on the Syrian situation, the play tells the flesh-and-blood stories of four everyday people.” – HUFFINGTON POST

"I like Adam Cuthbert's arrangement." – ZOË KEATING

“[RETURN is] an Intoxicating Adventure in Sound” – NEW MUSIC BUFF