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James Layton is a composer, musician and visual artist based in Oslo, Norway. His work often explores non-climactic forms, which slowly unfold and focus on the juxtaposition of progression and stasis. His use of patterns, permutations and repetition aims to draw listeners into the music, while exploring ideas of time and memory. This work is often informed by his interest in visual art, particularly the works of Agnes Martin, Sol Lewitt and Bridget Riley.
His compositional output includes works for opera (saudade 2022), orchestra (focal 2019), chamber music (honour thy error as a hidden intention 2023), choir (veering slowly, losing identity 2023), as well as electro-acoustic music and collaborations with dance (Rock-A-Bye 2023) and visual media (time spent 2023). This work has been performed around Europe, including at festivals such as Bijloke Wonderland (2023), NODO/New Opera Days Ostrava (2022) and Ostrava New Music Days (2019). James is founder and curator of the Into the Ocean Series, an integrated recording and concert series showcasing experimental new music, primarily by emerging composers. The first project focused on music for solo viola in collaboration with violist Stephen Upshaw, with the debut online concert premiering in June 2020, featuring works by Jonathan Harvey, Marc Yeats and Benjamin Graves, and debut album Into the Ocean: The Viola released in October 2020, which includes a recording of his piece Wandering. This work was supported by the Trinity Laban Innovation Award, which he was awarded in 2019. He is part of RGMS: a curated collective of artists focusing on experimental release, whose albums are all released under the name ‘RGMS’. ‘Members produce a wide array of exploratory musics, ranging from lush soundscapes to near barren field recordings, and controlled chaos to meditative canopies.’ His work features on both instalments of the collaborative meditation album project MOSS, as well as his own album the memories are not my own, they’re borrowed from my past which was released in January 2021. James is currently undertaking his postgraduate studies in composition at Norges Musikkhøgskole in Oslo with Henrik Hellstenius. From 2015-19 he studied his undergraduate degree in composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance under Sam Hayden, Paul Newland, Stephen Montague, and Gwyn Pritchard, and Viola with Richard Crabtree. In 2019, he was a resident at the Ostrava New Music Days, attending lessons and seminars with Petr Kotík, Chaya Czernowin, Marc Sabat, Fredrick Rzewski, Klaas de Vries and Christian Wolff. His works are published by BabelScores. |
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Focal Rehearsal - Ostrava New Music Days 2019, Petr Kotík and Ostrava New Orchestra, photo by Martin Popelář
