John Butcher
John Butcher, born in Brighton in 1954, is an English saxophonist, improviser and composer. A physicist by training, he left academic research in 1982 for music and has since played with hundreds of musicians, from Derek Bailey and John Stevens to Polwechsel, Phil Durrant and John Russell, and in long-running duos with drummers and electronic players. His work ranges through free improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked studio pieces and explorations with feedback, amplification and extreme acoustics: the saxophone played inside oil tanks, caves, reservoirs and mausoleums, where the space becomes half of the instrument.
John Butcher, born in Brighton in 1954, is an English saxophonist, improviser and composer. A physicist by training, he left academic research in 1982 for music and has since played with hundreds of musicians, from Derek Bailey and John Stevens to Polwechsel, Phil Durrant and John Russell, and in long-running duos with drummers and electronic players. His work ranges through free improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked studio pieces and explorations with feedback, amplification and extreme acoustics: the saxophone played inside oil tanks, caves, reservoirs and mausoleums, where the space becomes half of the instrument.
The Art Of Noticing
'Making a journey to a Bright Nowhere' series - marking Eddie Prévost's 80th birthday.
Volume 2, Cafe OTO 16th July 2022
Ice In A Hot World
Thermal (John Butcher / Andy Moor / Thomas Lehn) formed in 2001, three musicians from different musical backgrounds, evolving along their personal routes to meet in free improvisations. For twenty years they’ve been taking their subtle and explosive …
Six Hands At An Open Door
Persistence of Sound celebrates the composer Richard Orton (1940–2013) with a selection of electroacoustic and computer music from across his career.
Cold Duck
No relation to the sparkling wine of the same name, Cold Duck is instead a series of nine biting improvisations by S4, an ad-hoc, all-star quartet of soprano saxophone innovators – one British, John Butcher, and the others Swiss: Urs Leimgruber, Hans…
Live at Cafe Oto
CD version. Japanese bluesman Kan Mikami is nothing less than an unalloyed force of nature; a skin-shredding blast of frozen wind from the poor, rural north of Japan that he calls home. In the late 1960s, like thousands of other Japanese young people…
Glints
"The three musicians seem to exchange and overlap tones, creating the feeling of a single and continuous arc extending, curving in space, a kind of bridge or thoroughfare outward." – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) Magda Mayas piano John Butcher tenor a…
Lamenti Dall'infinito
"If this quartet most resembles a jazz band among these Berlin recordings, it might be in its speculative assembly. [...] It’s akin to a novel, Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch, designed with multiple reading sequences, or Nanni Balestrini’s Tristano, in w…
Shaped & Chased
Tip! "Lehn and Robair are particularly well-matched. Lehn is a musician who came to electronics from the piano, while Robair’s resources include both electronics and percussion. Each matches readily with acoustics and circuitry and creates a remarkab…
La Pierre Tachée
"… a kind of ideal duet, no imitation conversation but two simultaneous composers each repeatedly provoked and silenced, prodded and enchanted by the other…" – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) Sophie Agnel piano John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones
Induction
"Improvised music at this level of concentration may touch the roots of human culture, the transformative power of the cave and the paintings of Lascaux and Altamira." – Stuart Broomer (liner notes) Burkhard Beins percussion John Butcher tenor and so…
Iklectik Live One
Matchless Recordings presents a live concert by Eddie Prévost, John Butcher and Guillaume Viltard recorded at Iklectik, in London, UK, on November 23rd, 2016, by Giovanni de Rovere. The album includes four tracks performed by John Butcher - Tenor Sax…
The Clawed Stone
Matthew Shipp (piano), John Butcher (saxophones) and Thomas Lehn (electronics) in a studio album recorded in France in 2017, a uniquely voiced collective trio of transformative improvisation, Lehn's additions and modifications blending perfectly with…
Taking the Dog for a Walk
After Sunny’s time now, his authoritative portrait of the American Free jazz drumming legend Sunny Murray, Luxembourg filmmaker Antoine Prum turns his attention to the British Free Improvised Music scene in this new feature-length music documentary. …
Crucial Anatomy
The Last Dream of the Morning is the new band from three UK masters of contemporary improvised music – they released a trio CD under this title on Relativ Pitch (NYC) in 2017, now choosing it for their bandname for continuing activities. Recorded by …
Fictional Souvenirs
**300 copies** Performing in concert at Iklectik in London in 2017, the UK and Norwegian free improvising trio of Pat Thomas on Moog, Theremin and IPad based electronics, John Butcher on saxophones, and Ståle Liavik Solberg on drums and percussion, i…
At The Hill Of James Magee
At The Hill Of James Magee presents the duos complete performance at the extraordinary monument "The Hill" in the Chihuahuan Desert in the middle of nowhere in Texas. John Butcher and Joe McPhee had never shared a stage before which ended up being an…
Drunk on Dreams
**Last Copies** Edition of 300. A long and profound relationship between two radical improvisors has transformed into a multiverse of sound in three pieces. On a curious day in Paris, John Butcher fell into his saxophone and ventured deep into its fa…
Skullmarks
The group Common Objects was formed in 2005 by the British harpist/composer Rhodri Davies. The group has had a fluid membership, but in recent years its core members have been the six musicians performing on this album: John Butcher, Angharad Davies,…
Visionary Fantasies
The 100th record released by Matchless! A series of inspired solo and duo performances from AMM founder, percussionist Eddie Prevost and free improvising saxophonist John Butcher, captured live at London's Iklectik in 2018, splitting the album betwee…
Last Dream of the Morning
A studio album between three UK master improvisers - John Butcher on sax, John Edwards on double bass, and Mark Sanders on drums - the trio pushing the envelope in technique and dialog in nearly telepathic playing that transports the listener into th…