Adam Simmons
Adam Simmons brings clarinet, saxophones and shakuhachi to music that slips between liturgical calm, klezmer bite and free ensemble colour. His playing bends notes, shadows melodies and opens long stretches of dream and grit.
On Jewish folk and memorial pieces his clarinet explores inner klezmer: bent notes, over-blowing, mini-glissandi, a yawp-inflected solo one moment and the subtlest interference the next. Against string quartet he can sound traditional and expressive on shakuhachi, breath arriving over ethereal tremolo. In long-form contemporary ensemble work he moves between ancient-wall calm and dense improvisation, saxophones and clarinets colouring darkness, light and an abyss of dreams.
Adam Simmons appears on
Immersion
Six musicians journey into an exploration of darkness and light, immersing themselves in an unknown landscape. Wholly open to acts of transformation upon their psyches, they sink into an abyss of dreams.