Tuesday 12 December 2017, 7.30pm
This quintet developed from the combination of two existing groups (the Butcher/Davis/Lash trio and the Davis / Lazaridou-Chatzigoga duo) at a London gig at the end of 2016. This concert will be their second performance. If the last gig is anything to go by, expect a subtle attention to acoustic textures combined with a surprisingly harsh intensity but always with great poise.
John Butcher - "Butcher’s virtuosity... radiates a compelling and daring beauty too, exploring the edges and limits of the sounds of breath, the force which keeps us alive and connecting." The Morning Star
Angharad Davies - "the furious vigour of Davies’ bowing [is] matched only by the restraint with which she holds this energy in check" We Need No Swords
Matt Davis - "mixing blasts and polyphonic screeches that could practically dismantle the world with warmer and more traditional sounds... near-melodies which unfold gently" Alfio Castorina, Kathodik
Dominic Lash - "endless efforts to veer left of every known note or chord" James Costelloe, Newcastle Journal
Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga - "Things swell and subside, as with topography, and new chasms open up as if according to some plan." Jeph Jerman, The Squid's Ear
Born in Brighton and living in London, John Butcher is a saxophonist whose work ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multi tracked pieces and explorations with feedback, unusual acoustics and non-concert locations. He is well known as a solo performer who attempts to engage with a sense of place. Resonant Spaces, for example, is a collection of performances recorded during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands.
Butcher originally studied Physics, but after publishing a PH.D (1982) on quantum chromodynamics he left academia and took off with music. He has since collaborated with hundreds of artists, some for many decades, including Derek Bailey, Eddie Prévost, Angharad Davies, John Stevens’ Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Okkyung Lee, Andy Moor, Sophie Agnel, Christian Marclay, Pat Thomas, Phil Minton, Rhodri Davies, Tony Buck, Magda Mayas, John Russell, Chris Corsano, Steve Beresford, Ståle Liavik Solberg, and Matthew Shipp.
Additionally he values occasional encounters - with large groups ranging from the WDR Sinfonieorchester (as soloist), and the 20+ piece EX Orkest to duos with Akio Suzuki, Liz Allbee, Keiji Haino, Isabelle Duthois, David Toop, Mariam Rezaei, Fred Frith and Joe McPhee.
Recent compositions include “Fluid Fixations” (an hcmf commission), “Penny Wands” for Futurist Intonarumori, “Good Liquor…” for the London Sinfonietta and “Tarab Cuts” (shortlisted for a British Composer’s Award).
"Over 40 years of sustained performance and publishing, English saxophonist, improvisor and composer John Butcher has shaped much of what soprano and tenor saxophone can do, and what their roles and vocabulary in improvised music might be. I’ve always heard Butcher’s playing as a kind of nose-to-tail saxophony, where the whole instrument from reed-tip to brim of bell is available, accessible and articulate. Few other saxophonists slice as sharply back into the physical history, material (and physics) of the instrument, across its near 200 year history. When Hector Berlioz wrote of his friend Adolphe Sax’s then fresh invention, “the varied beauty of its accent, sometimes serious, sometimes calm, sometimes impassioned, dreamy or melancholic, or vague”, he could have been imagining Butcher's distinctively clean but complex, enquiring soundworld." WIRE - October 2024. The Primer by Seymour Wright
Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist based in London working with free-improvisation, compositions and performance. Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation.
angharaddavies.com
Dominic Lash concentrates on the double bass and electric guitar. He works regularly with musicians including John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Emil Karlsen, Mark Sanders, Pat Thomas, and Alex Ward. He has lived and worked in Oxford, New York and Bristol, and is currently based in Cambridge where he and N.O. Moore curate the monthly improvised music series Soundhunt. He also runs the label Spoonhunt.
http://dominiclash.blogspot.co.uk/
Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (Thessaloniki, Greece) is a musician and linguist based in London. She is active in experimental and improvised music since 2006. She plays the zither, a string instrument, and uses ebows and objects on its resonance box to produce sustained or granulated sounds. Her approach focuses on the interplay between spontaneity and elaborate techniques.
Recently, Mikroton released ‘Borough’ that documents the singular meeting of ‘The Holy Quintet’ with Johnny Chang, Jamie Drouin, Dominic Lash and David Ryan.
In the last few years she has been performing mainly in and around London, while most recent shows have been in Berlin. At the moment, she is exploring multiple ways to reroute her music.
http://www.strokebystroke.net/
Matt Davis has been active in improvised music since the mid 90’s, playing throughout Europe and Japan in many different collaborations and small and large group ensembles including Zeitkratzer and La Sospechosa dance company.
From 2003 he has directed ‘Field’ - a live art/performance project, which investigates Space and has collaborated with geographer Doreen Massey, author of For Space.
His sound/music work continues to include acoustic improvisation (trumpet and preparations) which could be described as textural, sound based pieces. Along side this is an electromagnetic set up: performance based improvisations which use electromagnetic fields from custom-built cracked electrical devices and field recordings of electromagnetic residue and interference, as well as drawing on the immediate situation/space of the performance. These elements are explored as spatial, acoustic phenomena and for their potential as organic and/or feral musical elements.
