This performance showcased Bourne's inventive use of samples (including audio clips from The Simpsons and other TV shows) as well as his "cyclonic energy and virtuosity" and "ramblingly self-deprecating and sometimes off-mic announcements".
[3] By this stage, Bourne had also become co-leader of The Electric Dr M, Distortion Trio and Bourne/Davis/Kane, and was beginning to work in a wider context, leading to notable collaborations with artists and groups such as Nostalgia 77, Marc Ribot, Paul Dunmall, Annette Peacock, John Zorn, Pete Wareham, Barre Phillips and Tony Bevan.
[5] Montauk Variations caught the attention of Amon Tobin and Nancy Elizabeth, both of whom invited Bourne to rework their material, and Simon Green of Bonobo selected the composition "Juliet" for inclusion in his release of the Late Night Tales compilation series.
The Anglo-French trio "take the album’s melodies and textures as the starting point for avant-garde explorations"[6] that saw Bourne performing on a variety of analogue synthesisers as well as singing in German through a vocoder.
[6] An album of this music, entitled Radioland: Radio-Activity Revisited, was released digitally on The Leaf Label in December, with physical copies available in January 2016.
The music was recorded over an 18-month period at Bourne's home in West Yorkshire, mostly captured in snatched moments between soundtrack scores and session work.
[10] The Guardian described the record as "spartan, hypnotic and beautiful, if gloriously unresolved" and stated that Bourne was playing "as if...thrilled by the sound of a piano".
Material from Nightports w/ Matthew Bourne was premiered on three pianos with live manipulations at Middleton Hall as part of the Hull City Of Culture programme.