Dive into Adam Higton's collages via his psychedelic new album and video

Date
29 September 2016

Adam Higton’s band, Cosmic Neighbourhood, is named after the mythical world he creates for his nostalgic collage characters. The illustrator’s latest album features 16 tracks each inspired by a different collage, adding another dimension to his works and “bringing his fantasy world to life”. The original collages form a patchwork for the vinyl cover.

Adam’s music is childlike and psychedelic, with a scratchy electronic folk sound reminiscent of 60s and 70s kids TV shows like The Magic Roundabout theme tune. He records the songs at home, working with analogue tapes. “It gives the songs more warmth and it’s way more fun and experimental,” he explains. “I can make cut and paste percussive sounds and record sections backwards but similarly to the collages, the bulk of the songs content would have come from playing about, experimenting and improvising.”

The Cosmic Neighbourhood collages use a palette of yellow, green, blue, brown and pink, and depicts the daily goings-on of what Adam describes as “a magical suburb, a cut-and-paste community where nature is alive with dancing leaves and wandering elves”.

This is Adam’s second album following the first Collages which was released on cassette by Kit Records in 2015. Collages II is his first to be released on vinyl, out 10 October and available to pre-order on Bandcamp.

Above

Adam Higton / Cosmic Neighbourhood: Collages II artwork

Above

Adam Higton / Cosmic Neighbourhood: Collages II artwork

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Jenny Brewer

Jenny oversees our editorial output across work, news and features. She was previously It’s Nice That's news editor. Get in touch with any big creative stories, tips, pitches, news and opinions, or questions about all things editorial.

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