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1 | Fjordgata | 44:34 |
Superb extended live recording made at the Jazzfest Trondheim - incredible reed technique and concept from Butcher, anchored by Duch's flexible bass work.
"I first heard John Butcher in 2001 playing duos with Rhodri Davies and Derek Bailey on the CD Vortices and Angels. I was completely mesmerized, particularly by the two tracks in the end with John and Rhodri playing together. Vortices and Angels is still among my favourite albums. Trinity, AMM with John Butcher, being another one. Needless to say, playing with John at Trondelag Senter for Samtidskunst in my hometown Trondheim in May 2015 during Jazzfest, was a special occasion for me. This is a recording from that concert and apart from omitting some noises in the beginning, it is unedited."- Michael Duch
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John Butcher / saxophones
Michael Duch / contrabass
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Recorded live at the Jazzfest Trondheim, Trondelag Senter for Samtidskunst Jonas Krossli on May 9th, 2015.
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
Michael Francis Duch is a Norwegian double bass player and professor of double bass, jazz and experimental music at NTNU - Department of Music. He has been involved in more than 80 recordings in various formats and has collaborated with John Tilbury, Pauline Oliveros, Mats Gustafsson, George Lewis, AMM, Christian Wolff, Tony Conrad, Joëlle Léandre amongst others.
https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/michael.duch
