Adrian Utley

Adrian Utley
Background information
Birth name	Adrian Francis Utley
Born	(1957-04-27) 27 April 1957 (age 67) Northampton, England
Genres	Electronic trip hop
Instrument(s)	Guitar, bass, keyboards

Adrian Francis Utley (born 27 April 1957) is an English musician and producer, and a member of the band Portishead.[1]

Career

Born in Northampton,[2] Utley moved to Bristol in the mid 1980s, and heavily into jazz, played guitar with Big John Patton's touring band and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.[1] He built up a collection of vintage instruments and studio equipment, and moved into production and film work.[3]

Portishead formed in 1990 with the first album Dummy released in 1994 followed by Portishead in 1997.[1] Third was released in April 2008.[4] During Portishead's hiatus between the second and third albums, Utley's production work included Beth Gibbons and Rustin' Man's Out of Season and he worked with fellow Portishead member Geoff Barrow as the Jimi Entley Sound and Fuzzface.[1]

During his career, Utley has recorded with artists as diverse as Marilyn Manson, Jeff Beck, Torres, Perfume Genius, Alain Bashung[5] and Marianne Faithfull,[2] and his film work includes Sound by Nic Roeg and Spiders from Mars with David Attenborough.[6][7]

In 2009, he was part of the jazz collective Stonephace, releasing a self-titled album.[1] In 2010, he composed a new soundtrack for silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc with Will Gregory (of Goldfrapp), performed by a 23 piece orchestra conducted by Charles Hazlewood.[8][9][10] In 2012, he was commissioned by the National Trust to produce "Sonic Journey," a piece of music inspired by walking among the trees at Croft Castle.[11][12] In 2013, he performed Terry Riley's "In C" with an ensemble including a bass clarinet, four organs (played by Hazlewood), and 19 guitars (including John Parish), the performance released on CD later that year.[1][2][13][14][15]

In April 2018 he featured in an episode of series 45 of the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives, speaking in praise of Miles Davis.[16]

Credits

Year	Album	Artist	Details	Ref.
1988	Rust	Kevin Brown	Arranger, guitar	[17]
1993	Crazy Legs	Jeff Beck	Rhythm guitar	[17]
1994	Dummy	Portishead	As band member Producer, composer, guitar, bass, Hammond organ, string arrangements, mixing	[17]
1995	Zanzibar	Flanagan-Ingham Quartet	Producer	[17]
1997	Portishead	Portishead	As band member Producer, composer, guitar, bass, keyboards, synthesizer, theremin, string and horn arrangements, mixing	[17]
1998	Fantaisie militaire	Alain Bashung	Electric guitars	[17]
	Roseland NYC Live	Portishead	As band member Producer, composer, guitar, synthesizer, cabasa, orchestral arrangements	[17]
1999	Ultra-Obscene	Breakbeat Era	Guitar on "Late Morning"	[17]
	Reload	Tom Jones	Producer, guitars, bass on "Motherless Child" (with Portishead)	[17]
	Warminster	Himself with Mount Vernon Arts Lab	Producer, instrumentation	[17]
2000	Textile Lunch	Flanagan-Ingham Quartet	Producer	[17]
	Felt Mountain	Goldfrapp	Bass, synthesiser	[17]
	American Psycho: Music from the Controversial Motion Picture	Various artists	Producer on "Trouble" by Daniel Ash	[17]
2001	It's a Wonderful Life	Sparklehorse	Bass, guitar, Dictaphone	[17]
2002	Out of Season	Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man	Producer, guitars, bass, keyboards, synthesizers, engineering	[17]
	Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project	David Arnold	Guitar on "The James Bond Theme" featuring LTJ Bukem	[17]
	Hometime	Alison Moyet	Guitar on two tracks	[17]
	Len Parrot's Memorial Lift	Baxter Dury	Co-composer of "Gingham Smalls 2", guitar, bass	[17]
	How Animals Move	John Parish	Guitar, Dictaphone	[17]
2003	Black Cherry	Goldfrapp	Guitar, bass on "Train"	[17]
	The Golden Age of Grotesque	Marilyn Manson	Bass on "This Is the New Shit" (Goldfrapp Remix)	[17]
	Amorino	Isobel Campbell	Synthesizer on "This Land Flows With Milk"	[17]
	McKay	Stephanie McKay	Guitar, synthesizer	[17]
	Manipulating Agent	Katalyst	Guitar	[17]
2004	Blottie	Hurleurs	Guitar, bass, melodica, clavinet	[17]
2005	The Invisible Invasion	The Coral	Producer, engineering, mixing (with Geoff Barrow)	[17]
	Before the Poison	Marianne Faithfull	Guitars, bass, keyboards, synthesizers, piano, sampling	[17]
	Once Upon a Little Time	John Parish	Guitars	[17]
	Delirious / Theatre Of Dreams	Marc Almond	Guitar on "Delirious (Demented, Deluded, Delirious)"	[17]
	Luxury Problems	Patrick Duff	Producer, bass, engineering	[17]
2006	Supernature	Goldfrapp	Guitar on "Ooh La La", guitar & bass on "Satin Chic"	[17]
	Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited	Various artists	Performance and engineering on "Requiem for Anna" (with Portishead)	[17]
2008	Seventh Tree	Goldfrapp	Bass guitars on "Caravan Girl"	[17]
	Bugs in Amber	Get the Blessing	Electric guitar	[17]
	Third	Portishead	As band member Producer, composer, guitars, bass, keyboards, synthesizers, ukulele, programming, engineering	[17]
2009	Stonephace	Stonephace	As band member: electric guitar	[17]
	Bugs in Amber	Get the Blessing	Guitar, synthesizer	[17]
2010	Heligoland	Massive Attack	Guitar	[17]
2011	Street Clan	Invisible System	Guitar	[17]
	Happy Soup	Baxter Dury	Guitars	[17]
2012	The Haunted Man	Bat for Lashes	Guitar, additional synths on "Horses of the Sun"	[17]
	The Pond	The Pond	Mixing	[17]
	OC DC	Get the Blessing	Guitar	[17]
2013	In C	Adrian Utley's Guitar Orchestra	Guitar, mixing	[17]
	The Vapourer	Spiro	Mixing, producer, Moog	[17]
2014	Too Bright	Perfume Genius	Producer, guitar, bass, synthesizers, handclaps, engineering, mixing	[17]
	Lope and Antilope	Get the Blessing	Guitar, synthesizers	[17]
	Ostinato	Versari	Producer, guitar, synthesizers, piano, engineering	[17]
	Give My Love to London	Marianne Faithfull	Guitar	[17]
	Subterranean: New Designs on Bowie's Berlin	Dylan Howe	Guitar, introduction	[17]
	Crows' Bones	Martin Green	Guitar, bass, keyboard, percussion, mixing	[17]
2015	Sprinter	Torres	Guitar, synthesizer, temple block	[17]
2016	Zoo	Françoiz Breut	Producer, instrumentation, mixing	[17]
	Sirens	Joe Volk	Guitar on "Sirens", engineering	[17]
2017	Three Futures	Torres	Synthesizer	[17]
	The Underside of Power	Algiers	Producer, guitar, synthesizers, drum machine	[17]
	Zone on Nine	BONZIE	Guitar, bass, synthesizer, Swarmandal	[17]
2018	Hunter	Anna Calvi	Synthesizers, keyboards	[17]
	Arcadia (Music From The Motion Picture)	Himself & Will Gregory	Guitar, synthesizers	[17]
2020	Earth	EOB	Guitar	[17]
	Straight Songs of Sorrow	Mark Lanegan	Guitar, synthesizers	[17]
2021	Planet (i)	Squirrel Flower	Guitar, synthesizers, sitar	[17]
	Thirstier	Torres	Synthesizer	[17]
2022	Anywhere But Here	Sorry	Producer	[17]
	No End In Sight	Himself & Luke Reynolds	Extended play	[17]
2023	Strange Dance	Philip Selway	Guitar, bass, synthesizer	[17]

References

1. Jurek, Thom "Adrian Utley Biography", Allmusic. Retrieved 31 December 2016
2. Mejia, Paula (2015) "In Search Of Intensity, Musicians Turn To Adrian Utley", NPR, 6 May 2015. Retrieved 31 December 2016
3. "Portishead’s Adrian Utley shows off synth collection, taps up Andy Stott on film score", FACT, 19 September 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2016
4. Forrest, Peter (2008) "Adrian Utley: Recording Third", Sound on Sound, November 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2016
5. "Il y a vingt ans, Bashung publiait "Fantaisie militaire" - les Inrocks". Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
6. Fiegel, Eddi (2001) "Ears Wide Open", The Guardian, 28 February 2001. Retrieved 1 January 2017
7. "Adrian Utley", British Film Institute. Retrieved 1 January 2017
8. Rogers, Jude (2010) "The Passion of Joan of Arc/Utley/Gregory, Colston Hall, Bristol", The Guardian, 11 May 2010. Retrieved 31 December 2016
9. Schultz, Christopher (2011) "Portishead, Goldfrapp Members Premiere Hypnotic ‘Joan of Arc’ Soundtrack", Spin, 31 October 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2016
10. Alleva, Daniel Michael (2011) "Adrian Utley & Will Gregory: Goldenhead", The Aquarian Weekly, 26 October 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2017
11. Morris, Steven (2012) "Portishead's Adrian Utley soundtracks stroll among ancient trees", The Guardian, 16 October 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2016
12. "Portishead's Adrian Utley commissioned for Sonic Journeys", The Wire, 14 June 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2017
13. Murray, Robin (2013) "Organised Chaos: Adrian Utley", Clash, 24 October 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2016
14. Tuffrey, Laurie (2013) "LISTEN: Stream Adrian Utley's In C In Full", The Quietus, 10 October 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2016
15. "Adrian Utley records Terry Riley's In C for electric guitars", The Wire, 6 August 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2016
16. "Adrian Utley of Portishead on Miles Davis". BBC. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
17. "Adrian Utley". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 October 2018.