We use cookies on our website to provide you with the best experience. Most of these are essential and already present.
We do require your explicit consent to save your cart and browsing history between visits. Read about cookies we use here.
Your cart and preferences will not be saved if you leave the site.

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.

Dusted machinery
Butcher and Nakamura first played together in 2002 at 'Super Deluxe' in Tokyo at the invitation of promoter Hisashi Teruchi. The concert was released as half of 'Cavern with Nightlife' prompting Jason Bivins (Dusted Magazine) to write : 'Not only is …
Scrutables
John Butcher and Derek Bailey first played in duo around 1989, at London's Red Rose Club. Butcher then took part in the 1990 & 1992 (London) and 1996 (Vancouver) Company weeks. Various other playing situations materialised in the 90s, ranging from…
Trace
Cassette-only release. Edition of 250 copies. John Butcher's work ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multi-tracked saxophone pieces and explorations with feedback and extreme acoustics. Originally a physicist, he left academia in 198…
Invisible ear
Two decades ago, saxophonist John Butcher abandoned his doctoral pursuits in theoretical physics to pursue a life in improvised music and has since become one of the genre’s leading instrumental and structural innovators. Butcher’s pursuit of exte…
Carliol
'John Butcher: tenor or soprano saxophones - plus feedback, motors, embedded harp speaker. Rhodri Davies: pedal harp, lever harp with embedded speaker and electric harp, aeolian electric harp. John Butcher is one of the leading sax players on the …
Treader Duos
Recorded February 2008, this album captures a specially organised Treader concert at St Giles-in-the-Fields church in London's West End. A series of duos played at the event, each improvising over the course of a twenty-five minute set. First up, the…
Buffalo Pearl
John Butcher (tenor & soprano saxophones) with Gerry Hemingway (drums, percussion, voice, sampler). 'Buffalo Pearl is culled from a performance in April 2005 with myself and John Butcher and marks the 7th release on my own Auricle Record label (aur-7…
the geometry of sentiment
John Butcher is up there with the Parkers, the Rothenbergs, the Zorns and the Harths, yet his style is inimitable; he has arrived at the top at last, and dominates in a world of bent overtones and multiple subdivisions of a single note. THE GEOMETRY …
Cavern with nightlife
Five tracks from 2002 recorded live in Japan by Tetuzi Akiyama. The first four feature Butcher solo on tenor or soprano sax, and were recorded at the Oya Stone Museum. The final track is a 20-minute duet with Toshimaru Nakimura on no-imput mixing …
Optic
Two of the most adventurous musicians around today, John Butcher and John Edwards have been working as a very compatible duo for some years now. This CD contains concert performances from Brussels and Barcelona. 59 minutes -- previously unissued.
Interworks
John Butcher - tenor/soprano saxophones with Eddie Prévost - tam-tam and other percussion. Studio recordings from July, 2005.
The contest of pleasures - Tempestuous
Late-night improvisation captured on a stormy November evening in an old church during the 2006 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. John Butcher's soprano and tenor saxophones intertwine with Xavier Charles' clarinet and Axel Dörner's trumpet a…
Requests and antisongs
Saxophonist John Butcher and violinist Phil Durrant had been playing together on the English improv scene in various formations for 14 years when they decided to start a live electroacoustic project in 1997, a project not unlike Evan Parker's own uni…
13 friendly numbers
John Butcher appeared on six records, beginning with the 1984 LP 'Fonetiks, before he first released 'Thirteen Friendly Numbers' on his own Acta label in 1992. But the disc is still something of a debut; it is the first document of his peculiar langu…
Fixations (14)
Though saxophonist John Butcher is not short on instrumental prowess, his primary assets lie in the realm of ideas. On Fixations, Butcher has rejected conventional jazz thinking (swing, melodicism, harmonic cycles) in favor of creating his own perso…
Freedom Of The City 2001 - Small Groups
Highlights from small group recordings from the 2001 Freedom of the City festival featuring artists such as Steve Beresford (electronics), John Butcher (saxes), Lol Coxhill (sax), Paul Rutherford (trombone), Phil Minton, and more in various arrangeme…
The First Two Gigs
An improvising quartet featuring four of the finest and most innovative musicians, who have extended the ranges of their respective instruments - piano, saxophones, harp and double bass - into new, uncharted territories. As well as having exceptional…
1 2 3 4