John Butcher

(or something like that anyway)

http://www.fringesrecordings.com/pages/fringes.php?position=2&start=6&step=6

- so best to pick it up ASAP. His previous solo disc - _Fixations (14) [Emanem]_ - from a couple of years back was more "straight" sax playing (no electronics) but is pretty good also.

He's a very interesting musician, but a lot of the time he plays/records in settings and with people which/who tend to encourage or at least lend themselves to more-or-less "traditional" UK improv. For me his best records are those which are furthest from this idiom: the duo with Phil Durrant, trio with Durrant and John Russell (to an admittedly lesser extent), the three Polwechsel discs he's played on, and the trio with Xavier Charles being my favourites.

Anyway: get the fixations disc which is da shit. I wonder sometimes why he has to do all the trickery but its a tribute to his restlessness (sp?) that all really good improvisors have bcz even in solo situations the sounds he gets from that are quite something: almost becoming an electronic instrument.

Also there's a duo with vocalist vanessa mackness on Incus (which i don't have) and there's a disc called 13 friendly numbers: haven't heard that or what you're describing but he does stuff like multitracking his saxophone playing and there are some lovely textures in that kind of thing though that approach isn't exactly new (Listen to george lewis solo trombone record LP where he multitracks three trombones)

Then there is a duo disc on emanem: one half is a terrific duo with bailey, the other is with rhodri davies (pretty quiet, a real play with accoustics).

And then get discs by Alan Wilkinson, Tony bevan and charles wharf in them if you can too. Fantastic players who don't do many recordings.

alan wilkinson- go for the duo with bailey on incus and jaworzyn (also on incus) (also can someone please burn a disc of that wilkinson/really noisy guitar player i saw, gig of the year for me).

I saw limescale live: didn't work as well as it could have done but I'll get that record.

Julio - re: Charles Wharf - the only disc I know of that he's been on is the Descension quartet (w/ Jaworzyn, Fell & Irving) on Shock from about 1996. Are there any others? And whatever happened to Stefan Jaworzyn?

haha I know the 'comedy gurning' is not everyone's tastes (bet he wasn't always like this, I mean there is none of that on the disc with jaworzyn) but I don't mind it. His playing is fine but I don't know how valid it is to compare it to Butcher: they are v different.

As far as bevan is concerned: yes, 'original gravity' is the shit. i think it was also recorded in the studio and mostly, my experience is that improv recorded there lacks a punch. I like recordings in a live setting. But that is consistently inventive.

''Julio - re: Charles Wharf - the only disc I know of that he's been on is the Descension quartet (w/ Jaworzyn, Fell & Irving) on Shock from about 1996. Are there any others? And whatever happened to Stefan Jaworzyn?''

Bruce's fingers has a few with wharf in it (but i don't have any actually). That descension is good (despite the fuck awful recording) and wharf's playing is tops. I'll get round to more.

Jaworzyn was running the scum list but that's over now. he packed it in a couple of months ago (not cost effective or something, got lots of good stuff through it tho'). Talked to him over email: ascension are playing at the termite club in october/november and he is writing some book (as i recall).

i still don't get much out of the Butcher/Charles/Dörner - i'd go so far as to call the disc anhedonic - but all Butcher's solo discs are recommended, Invisible Ear being the best of the bunch by far. and Butcher's duo with Dylan Van der Schyff, Points, Snags & Windings, is surprisingly potent; one of the sharpest dialogues between percussion and free sax i've ever heard. these two are on exactly the same page.

A collaboration between Ilan Volkov and the BBC SSO with Eddie Prévost, John Tilbury and musicians from AMM, juxtaposing written music and improvisation. Including works by Scelsi, James Tenney, Varèse and Webern.

Varèse Integrales
Improvisation (John Butcher, saxophones)
Webern 5 Pieces, Op.10
Prévost and Tilbury Improvisation (Eddie Prévost, percussion; John Tilbury, piano)
Scelsi Anahit (Elizabeth Layton, violin – Leader BBC SSO)
Improvisation (John Butcher, saxophones)
James Tenney Form II (In Memoriam John Cage)
(Eddie Prévost, percussion; John Tilbury, piano; John Butcher, saxophones)
Improvisation
(to be recorded for future broadcast in BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now)

AMM played a lovely set which had been preceeded by the SSO playing varése, Webern (gorgeous, never heard Webern before) and an amazing performance of the Tenney piece which was a rising pitch piece performed by the orchestra split into 7 sections all around the hall. one section on stage, 2 just to the right and left of the stage, 2 sections at the back of the hall and 2 upstairs on the balcony. A beautiful performance that sounded all the better because of the city hall's absolutely amazing acoustics. a real experience! also earlier John Butcher did an unamped tenor sax improve that nearly shattered my eardrums, it was like Pynchon's "A screaming comes across the sky..." made real.

second half was pretty good, the Scelsi Anahit (?) didn't really grab me. the second AMM & John Butcher improv was accompanied by 6 members of the SSO. it was pretty fun but also a bit of a mess. laughs derived from the SSO members' masks of terror during the 20 or so minutes, they were just frozen/clueless in that improv situation. amazingly talented musicians but really highlighted the risks improv musicians take note by note.

anyway - the main reason i'm reviving the thread is because of this resonant spaces project taking place all over scotland in june. musicians are akio suzuki and john butcher.

http://www.arika.org.uk/resonant-spaces/what/?

We hope to capture and set free the sound of some of the most exciting and incredible locations in Scotland. Locations that resonate and echo, or that have fantastic ambient sounds or dense, near endless reverberations. We're working with musicians who have a special interest in the sound of a space, of your place within it; both have the ability to create magical and charming, intense and often very moving performances. These won't be like an average live gig, but then don't you find that the greatest experiences happen where you least expect them. In the oddest of places.

It takes 2 deeply original thinkers in sound and celebrates a unique
quality in their music; the ability to treat time and space, reverb
and echo as unique foils and tools in their performances; plainly
speaking, they play with the sounds of locations. And so we're taking
them to places with unbelievable acoustic properties: WWII oil tanks,
abandoned reservoirs, you get the idea.

http://www.arika.org.uk/resonant-spaces/x_img/venues/smoo-1.jpg
smoo cave in durness "The largest costal cave in the UK".

http://www.arika.org.uk/resonant-spaces/x_img/venues/wormit-2.jpg
wormit reservoir in fife.

http://www.arika.org.uk/resonant-spaces/x_img/venues/lyness-2.jpg
lyness oil tank on orkney.

& others.

this picture of akio suzuki alone makes me quite excited about the project, heh.

http://www.arika.org.uk/resonant-spaces/x_img/musicians/akio-1.jpg

http://www.arika.org.uk/resonant-spaces/x_img/musicians/john-2.jpg

Yeah I read about this, sounds like a laugh - seen Suzuki before and he is totally in that "works much more if you actually see him than if you chased down a disc"- category. It doesn't translate for the most part (there is ONE excellent performance).

btw, the Polwechsel album was ripped and put up on this blog, you can get some more Webern over here and the latest 'hear and now' programme contains two Scelsi performances.

Not surprised the improv/orchestra thing didn't work. Guess I'll hear it for myself when its broadcast.

The single best recording i've heard is the arditti quartet on montaigne. My first disc was the one available on Naxos, that is a good starter.

scelsi is fantastic but very hard to find good performances of. the best single-disc intro is the compilation on editions rz.

thanks all for butcher tips! butcher tips.

he's on the new AMM album, sounding music, along with christian wolff and another player i can't recall (no keith rowe, but prevost/tilbury). tilbury's piano playing sounds great. just getting familiar with this.

buffalo pearl, with gerry hemingway (drums) is fantastic. good duo action, with a lot of unusual percussion sounds and varied zones

should i go see john butcher tonight at 8pm?

yes

that's what i thought. thank you for confirming my suspicions! he is giving a workshop tomorrow too, but i don't really have any reason to go to that.

Preshow music is Goblin so I have high hopes. There are...13 ppl here.

Eventually there were 16 people there. This show was weird. I found the breathing-noise-reed-tapping stuff kind of interesting, and he did some p major circular breathing too. Overall though, for an improvised set I felt like they only got going maybe once. It's possible that I just enjoy more composed music and/or I prefer my improvised music to be much louder (this is definitely true).

Still, glad I went. If I didn't have a Halloween party to attend, this was at least a place I had never been and music I had never heard.