Adam Wakeling - Musician and Composer

Classic Rock Magazine Jan 2011

'Adam James Wakeling, composer and multi-instrumentalist, is a newcomer to prog rock circles and has a style and sound all his own. Originally hailing from Romford in Essex, he now resides in the wilds of Suffolk. Wrath of the Titans was written and produced by Adam in his studio in Suffolk, where he also played all of the instruments on the album.
With influences like Queen, Metallica and Jeff Wayne (War of the Worlds), as well as Beethoven and Handel, this album promises to deliver some atmospheric, melodic hard rock of epic proportions, so the listener is in for a treat.

Wrath of the Titans is an instrumental album of ten tracks featuring; Darkness Rising, Wrath of the Titans, Olympus, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Edge of Insanity, Shadowlands, Agent 66, Drunk and Disorderly, Soothsayer and Handel’s Sarabande.
Included on this album is Handel’s Sarabande which is his take on the 300 year old classic, which incidentally was released as a single in the online stores, and is a tribute to the great composer himself. This is the only cover on the album, which leaves the other nine completely original tracks to speak for themselves.

The Four Horsemen is a haunting and melodic track which almost has a feel of ‘War of the Worlds’ (Jeff Wayne) to it, possibly due to the minor tones of the orchestra. There is a definite rhythm which complements its name, i.e. the rhythm of the galloping horses. Don’t forget to checkout the awesome ‘Four Horsemen’ video on Youtube.com!
The James Bond-esque ‘Agent 66’ is a completely different and welcome piece from the rest of the album and invokes memories of the original Bond movies of the 60’s, while also bringing it up to date in a more contemporary manner.
The only way to describe this album is an adrenaline fuelled rollercoaster ride of hard rock fused with classical orchestration, which will have you driving fast or playing air guitar like you never have done before!'
David Jeckell

Meadowlark Herald (United States) Feb 2012

Adam James Wakeling composes and performs his own music, mixing in numerous instruments into the same track. He is a one-man band, and the effect is interesting, and his music, which spans numerous genres, from meditation new age music to hard metal, also demonstrates significant influences from classical music. He is an Englishman, and lives in “the wilds of Suffolk,” where he has rusticated and draws inspiration now from his primitive English roots. What caught our ear was his study of Handel’s Sarabande in harpsichord and electric guitar (both played by Wakeling) (available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC-wWjgvKl0). It is worth a listen, incorporating distinctly modern and ancient methods through a jazz technique of interaction.

The French-American cellist and composer Yo Yo Ma has lectured extensively on the use of music to convey cultural thoughts from one era to another without context to business or politics, and Wakeling takes this lesson to heart. “My other passion is history and I am constantly trying to come up with musical ideas that convey the emotion and power of the situation or the era. The reason that I chose to rework Handel’s Sarabande for example, is because it is a very powerful and emotional piece of music. It is also melancholy and reminds me personally of the hardships of war,” explained Wakeling when I asked him about it. His Sarabande (and it is distinctly his, though upon the theme of Handel) attempts to embrace the pointless loss of life through war, and he desires that it be set to a performance depicting the tragedy of 1916’s Battle of the Somme (WWI) to remind his audience “how fragile our freedom actually is.”

Wakeling, like Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, admires Handel above all other composers, for its simple majesty and powerful emotion. He is also deeply inspired by the modern composer, Hans Zimmer. However, at this time he will not attempt to revisit Handel any further. He does intend a study of Prokofiev’s Montagues and Capulet’s (from Romeo and Juliet), Shostakovich' Second Waltz (Russian Waltz) and Ravel’s Bolero. “I am intentionally choosing music that is dramatic and uplifting as I hope that this will come across very well to most people, and could possibly get listeners who are into rock and pop to actually start listening to classical music,” said Wakeling. He studies the ancient folk melodies of Europe and America, and as a hobby is attempting to set Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) to music, and having it performed as a modern musical.

“I have lived in town my whole life (outskirts of London) and I have always been a country boy at heart. I love the sights and smells of the countryside, the wildlife and sense of timeless beauty that comes only from nature. This has indeed influenced my music massively, as before I could hear the sounds of police cars and traffic which had a negative effect on my work. Now the only sounds I hear are from nature which I am more than happy with and it is this experience which enables me to return to my roots. My cultural past is very prominent in my life as I am very passionate about history, so I suppose I seek a closer relationship with it.”

He wants his American friends to remember that England, too, is a nation of immigrants and nature lovers, and to honor him, I would here affirm that it is a fact that all nations are. “With these civilisations comes their music and arts, and it is from this mixture of styles that we have created our own heritage which I would like to see preserved,” said Wakeling. He believes that world-wide, cultural identity is changing, being replaced with some artificial and manufactured culture of music. “There is a wealth of musical history in Britain and this resource does not seem to be tapped in to as well as it should be, hopefully by using this inspiration for my musical interpretations, I can play a part in achieving this,” said Wakeling.
I eagerly look forward to his future work, and especially his musical “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”
Aaron Brachfeld