James Layton is a composer, musician and artist based in London, UK. His work often explores non-climatic 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. Among his acoustic writing, he also works with lo-fi electronics in the form of cassette tapes, guitar effects pedals, audio and video tape, creating long-form compositions and installations, often with a combination of acoustic and electronic elements.
these memories are not my own, they're borrowed from my past [RGMS-008]​
Released January 22, 2021

Musings: That which has been infolded coming undone, unraveling - ten thousand things spontaneously. Hidden behind the veil of time, put on display in convolving ephemerality. Catching sight of the force that compels all, from immanent to transcendent, and back again - a processes’ journey, becoming flesh. No sooner born, then relegated to remembrance. Borrowed from the realm of being and non-being, memories, which shape this form, yet seem to perpetually inhabit a new self. Those borrowed from the ten thousand things: these vague recollections of a willing participant in the dance of entropy - nostalgia from a supernova - or those of a cog in a great concentration, some collective inhalation: the stringing of a spiders’ web, the sprouting of some Amazon, the song of virile Wood Thrushes - all of which, converge, to bring a realization in the present moment, a reverence for those moments past, and an anticipation for a reunion of the two, reconciled into one.

Composed, Performed, and Produced by James Layton
Mixed and Mastered by Sean Kiley​
Focal
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​extract from Orchestral Opening Concert, Ostrava Days 2019,
Ostrava New Orchestra conducted by Petr Kotík
Wandering

performed by Stephen Upshaw
Solem Quartet Online Concert
MOSS #8: jean, you forgot to pay the electric bill! ​
Meditation Objects, Supplements, and Sequences (MOSS) Vol. I [RGMS-004]

​Released November 17, 2020

​Meditation Objects, Supplements, and Sequences or MOSS, is a curated collaborative album from members of rgms consisting of tracks designed for meditation. This album was inspired in response to the seemingly rather monotonous tone of most meditation music found online today. Here, the aim is to explore a wide variety of states of being possible within the meditative posture. Herein, we have tracks, which lilt us in a gentle state of at onement, others which guide us through strange lands and circular quests, yet others still which take us to that part of ourselves we have not visited in a while, and while our initial urge may be to resist, the vibrations coax us to stay and have a look around for a little while, until we might find this once unfavorable place not at all too unbecoming.

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