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Martin Archer

Country: United Kingdom

Martin Archer (born 1957 in Sheffield) is an English saxophonist, composer and electronic musician. He has been part of the Sheffield improvised music scene since the 1970s and is known for studio pieces built from recorded improvisations reworked with electronics, released on his own label Discus, which also issues other artists' music. Martin Archer led the saxophone quartet Hornweb from 1983 to 1993, then turned for a while to synthesizers and studio composition.

Mast Year
The first song cycle collaboration by this new partnership is a highly adventurous and ambitious work, and one which explores a journey through dark places expressed in an improvisation-based language of strange sounds and textures, plus some unexpec…
Trapping
2007 release  ** "Trapping captures BTT virtually live in the studio - from memory, only the vocals were overdubbed - , and reveals a tight band which constantly rehearsed and modified it's music always with the next gig in mind. The recording covers…
88 Enemies
1997 release ** ""88 Enemies is a potentially infinite series of compositions which sound almost like contemporary piano music. These first eight parts, conceived as a self-contained cycle, were composed and recorded between October 1996 and June 199…
Private View
A meticulously crafted set of songs, instrumentals and abstracts recorded over a couple of years by Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere’s principal composer / arranger / multi instrumentalists Archer and Todd.
Practical Dreamers
This fifth AXIS recording once again brings in a different approach to the music. With the exception of the group’s first album, Les Oiseaux De Matisse, which was largely recorded live in the studio, subsequent albums (Dream Feathers, Port Of Saints,…
Biyartabiyu
"Because I make records in a number of different styles, I often filter and change my saxophone playing to match the style of the record I’m making. But when I make a work like this, you hear my playing in my natural, unfiltered style, and that style…
Hi Res Heart
When I proposed this trio it was intentional to create an instrumentation which closely matched that of the classic Leo Smith Trio of the 1970s – a line up which allows space and fire to co-exist. Of course, the fact that Martin Pyne doubles on both …
Provenance
Martin Archer and John Jasnoch have a musical relationship which goes all the way back to the early 1980s when they were both a part of jazz-punk pell mellers Bass Tone Trap. Over the subsequent years they have played and recorded together occasional…
Port of Saints
Port Of Saints is the third collaboration between Archer and Caines - all compositions by Caines with arrangements and production by Archer. This time around the 14 pieces have been edited into three long suites, and a careful listener will hear them…