Adam Soper is an improviser, composer-performer, music researcher, and educator based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. He employs improvisational approaches to the guitar and audio effects, and combines these with DIY and digital technologies that edit and reimagine environmental recordings, past improvisations, sonified images, and audio samples as elements in conceptual works. Soper’s work has operated variously in the genres of (weird) folk, contemporary Western art music, (post-)metal, rock, noise, minimalism, ambient, free improvisation, and sound art; but, more frequently, occupies spaces within and between these categories, shifting between performances, depending on their function and context.
Soper has worked in partnership with the Church of England and has been invited to perform or exhibit at events organised by Copenhagen University; Tyne and Wear Museums and Archives; the Singletary Center for the Arts, Kentucky, USA; and the rural arts organisation Slop Projects. Soper has led projects funded by the Peter Warlock Society, Norfolk County Council, the Newcastle Institute for Creative Arts Practice, and the Newcastle Performance Research Network. In December 2024 he passed his PhD in creative practice at Newcastle University. This PhD project used improvised music as a means of searching for, finding, creating, and burying occult knowledge, and involved the liturgical creation of two improvised recorded musical releases each month across a five year period (amounting to over 160 releases). The liturgical element of this practice is still ongoing. Soper currently works as an associate lecturer in creative music practice at Newcastle University and as a private music educator.
Contact
adam.soper@gmail.com
Education
Newcastle University (2019-2025), PhD Music
Title: Fruit of the Vine: investigating improvised musical composition as a contradictory tool to un/cover occluded knowledge (supervised by Dr Will Edmondes and Dr Tim Shaw).
This is was a creative practice PhD that comprises of producing a minimum of two recorded improvised performances a month (in line with the lunar calendar). These releases are uploaded to an online archive which functions as the PhD portfolio, this is accompanied by a c.30,000-word written commentary.
Newcastle University (2016-2017), Master of Music, Distinction.
Newcastle University (2013- 2016), BA (Hons) Music, 1st.
Releases
Fruit of the Vine, online archive of c.160 releases, PhD Portfolio (2019-present).
‘Grief, Sorrow’, The Nightmare Continues (Industrial Coast, 2025)
Winter (Borenail Records, 2024).
‘Sovereign House‘, Life is Cheap, Death is Free (Industrial Coast, 2024).
Publications
Books
The Songs of Peter Warlock (Goodmusic Publishing, 2025).
Articles and Book Chapters
‘To be a Pilgrim: Hobgoblins, Foul Fiends, and Seeking the Unknown’, Boulderdash: Stones Drones and Noise, Issue 7 (2025).
‘Fruit of the Vine’, MEANS Magazine, Issue 4 (2025).
‘JUNOTHOR = JOHNTOUR’, Dead Letter Office, Issue 1 (2025).
‘Adam Lay Ybounden’, Journal of Discarded Daydreams, Issue 1 (2024).
‘Lightning Lullaby’, Peter Warlock Society Newsletter, no.113 (2023).
Performances
Black Bile, Wild Pop, the Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle (2025)
Spectral Sonics, the Holloway, Norwich (2025).
Dry, Sonic Developments, Commune, Liverpool (2025).
Aether, Another Day, A Second Glance, Arts Bar Baltic, Liverpool (2025).
Fruit of the Vine (supporting Perry Frank), Ambient Leeds, Fox and Newt, Leeds (2025).
Necropolis (supporting Jules Reidy and Nina Garcia), Cobalt Studios, Newcastle (2025).
Paranormal Visitations, Norfolk Folklore Society, Norwich (2025).RASM (duo with Dr Rob Mackay), Great North Nights, the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle (2024).
Cultural Subterraneans, A Tide of Ghosts Conference, Copenhagen University (2024).
Warder, Great North Nights, the Hancock Museum, Newcastle (2024).
Jack the Beadle, All Saints Church, Newcastle (2024).
(In)material, Intimacies Festival, Ambition’s Graveyard, Norwich (2024).
Lightning Lullaby, Trinity and All Saints Church, Winterton, Norfolk (2023).
Mental Radio, BAAS Conference, Keele University (2023).
Fuel for Rules and Veiled, Pop-Up Slop, Newcastle (2022).
Bleakish Thud, HASS PGR Showcase, Newcastle University (2021).
Raven King, St Oswald’s in Lee, Heavenfield, Northumberland (2020).
Exhibitions and Installations
Jack the Beadle (funded by the Newcastle Performance Research Network), Sound + Environment Symposium, Newcastle University (2025).
JUNOTHOR=JOHNTOUR, Dead Letter Office, Lazenby Social Club (2025)
Constant Struggle, Singletary Center Visual Music Festival, Kentucky, USA (2025)
Rotation, Slop X Wild Museum, Dukes Hagg Wood, Prudhoe (2024).
Chant and Moan, The Arches Sound Project, Newcastle University (2024).
Full of Hills and Vales, Pop-Up Slop, Newcastle (2022).
Employment
Associate Lecturer, Newcastle University (2020-Present).
Contemporary Pop Performance
Finalist Composition Specialist Studies Supervisor
Free Music Practice
PASS/Partners Summer School
Private Music Tutor, self-employed, Newcastle (2015 -Present).
Guitar Tutor, Northumberland County Council (2023).
Guitar and bass tutor, ensemble session leader, the Rock Project, Newcastle (2018-2020).
Adam Soper 