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John Butcher
He is well known as a solo performer who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of place. Resonant Spaces is a collection of site-specific performances collected during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands. His first solo album, Thirteen Friendly Numbers, includes compositions for multi- tracked saxophones, whilst later solo CDs focus on live performance, composition, amplification and saxophone-controlled feedback.
HCMF has twice commissioned him to compose for his own large ensembles. Other commissions include for Elision, the Rova & Quasar Saxophone Quartets, reconstructed Futurist Intonarumori, "Tarab Cuts" (based on pre-WWII Arabic recordings, and shortlisted for the 2014 British Composer's Award), "Good Liquor .." for the London Sinfonietta and "Fixations and the Open Road" for CEPRO. In 2011 he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists.
Recent groupings include The Apophonics (+Gino Robair/John Edwards), Thermal (+Andy Moore/Thomas Lehn), Vellum (+Tony Buck/Magda Mayas) and trios with Okkyung Lee/Mark Sanders and Matt Shipp/Thomas Lehn.
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John Butcher / Pat Thomas / Dominic Lash / Steve Noble: Fathom
by John Sharpe
Finely judged sounds studded in space. Bursts of incipient rhythm. Wafts of fire music energy. Those are just some of the fruitful products of the British foursome of saxophonist John Butcher, pianist Pat Thomas, bassist Dominic Lash and drummer Steve Noble. A spider's web of alliances connects them, notably tangled given their time on the promiscuous UK free scene, so it is all the more surprising that Fathom documents their first meeting as a group, in north London's Cafe Oto ...
read moreFlorian Stoffner, John Butcher, Chris Corsano: Braids
by Alberto Bazzurro
Una free impro abbastanza classica (tutto può diventare un classico, anche l'irriverenza), piuttosto ben calibrata e mai sopra le righe, è quanto ci giunge da questi cinquanta minuti scarsi di musica certamente non accomodante (ma del resto, come si sarà capito, nemmeno mai urtante), incisi nel maggio 2022 in quel di Bienna, città svizzera sul lago omonimo, fra Berna e Basilea. Ne sono artefici tre musicisti piuttosto rodati in materia, in special modo il sassofonista inglese John Butcher, che viaggia ...
read moreFlorian Stoffner, John Butcher, Chris Corsano.: Braids
by John Eyles
The trio of Swiss guitarist Florian Stoffer, British saxophonist John Butcher and US drummer Chris Corsano recorded their first album Braids live at Le Singe, in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, on May 22nd 2022. Stoffer had a previous release on ezz-thetics, Tetratne, a duo with drummer Paul Lovens, released in 2020. Between 1999 and 2009, Butcher was a member of the quartet Polwechsel, appearing on three of the group's albums on hatOLOGY or hat[now]ART; he was also a soloist on Christopher Fox's ...
read moreThermal: Ice In A Hot World
by John Sharpe
A group which played their first concert in a disused Brussels train station in the early 2000s shows it still knows how to unsettle on Ice In A Hot World. It is only the second album during this time from saxophonist John Butcher, analog synthesizer player Thomas Lehn and guitarist Andy Moor, who ply their trade under the banner Thermal. Recorded live in Avignon just before the pandemic hit, the five spontaneously crafted cuts showcase a particularly egalitarian trio who ...
read moreJohn Butcher: The Very Fabric
by John Eyles
Recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 17th 2022, John Butcher's The Very Fabric is welcome and notable for several reasons. Firstly, it is the first release on which he is the sole musician since Nigemizu (Uchimizu Records, 2015), recorded in August 2013. Secondly, at the invitation of Thomas Buhl-Wiggers of the Cejoro festival and label, Butcher recorded The Very Fabric in Copenhagen's Brønshøj Vandtårn, a concrete water tower built about a century ago in the suburbs of the city. Buhl-Wiggers ...
read moreThe John Butcher Vinyl Series
by John Sharpe
British saxophonist John Butcher has originated an astounding array of saxophone techniques which he combines in a personal syntax which is instantly recognizable, particularly involving the production of a broad range of multiphonics which vary from juddering growl to chirruping stridulation, but which defies easy description. Novel sounds in themselves of course would only be of passing interest were the way in which he orchestrates on-the-fly, either alone or in consort with others, not so compelling. As a ...
read moreJohn Butcher, Thomas Lehn, Gino Robair: Shaped & Chased
by Mark Corroto
To mark John Butcher's 65th birthday in 2019, a series of concerts was held (mostly in Berlin) which produced five well-appointed limited edition LPs of 300 from the folks at Ni Vu Ni Connu. The varied albums include Induction, a trio with Burkhard Beins and Werner Dafeldecker, La Pierre Tachée, a duo with Sophie Agnel, Shaped & Chased, a trio with Thomas Lehn and Gino Robair, Lamenti Dall'infinito, a quartet with Liz Allbee, Ignaz Schick, and Marta Zapparoli, and Glints, ...
read moreThe Apophonics Play Cafe Oto To Launch Their First Album "On Air"
Source:
John Eyles
The Apophonics—the trio of saxophonist John Butcher, bassist John Edwards and drummer Gino Robair—will play their first London gig at Café Oto on Wednesday 27th November to celebrate the launch of their debut album On Air. The three first played together in 2008 in the eight-piece Butcher group that recorded somethingtobesaid (Weight of Wax, 2009) at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. The idea of forming a trio came to fruition in 2011 with some concerts in France and Belgium. In ...
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The Red Trio Back for Their Second Album: "Empire" with Guest John Butcher
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
When it's a matter of new, outside free-jazz ensembles, not all that many can afford to stay together for a second go-round. The Red Trio have. Their first came out in 2010 on Clean Feed (see review from April 5, 2010). It was quite lively and showed much promise. They return with the vinyl-only release Empire (No Business NBLP 37) in a limited edition of 400. That is a good thing because this is some very well-executed outness. Rodrigo Pinheiro ...
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Red Trio + John Butcher - Empire (Nobusiness, 2011)
Source:
Music and More by Tim Niland
The RED Trio is a free-jazz group based in Lisbon, made up of Rodrigo Pinheiro on piano, Hernani Faustino on bass and Gabriel Ferrandini on drums and percussion. For their second album they had the good fortune to welcome a special guest, British saxophonist John Butcher, a revered figure in the European free-improvisation scene. This collaboration works very well, through an album of increasingly lengthy tracks, the group melds its musical minds to collectively explore the far reaches of free-jazz ...
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