John Butcher, one of our leading innovative saxophonists, appears in a trio with Hannah Marshall and Mark Sanders on drums.
John Butcher’s work ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback and extreme acoustics.
Originally a physicist, he left academia in ’82, and has since collaborated with hundreds of musicians – inc. Derek Bailey, John Tilbury, John Stevens, The EX, Gerry Hemingway, Polwechsel, Gino Robair, Rhodri Davies, John Edwards, Toshi Nakamura, Paul Lovens, Eddie Prevost, Mark Sanders, Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Phil Minton, and Andy Moor.
He is well known as a solo performer who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of place. Resonant Spaces (’06) is a collection of site-specific performances collected during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands.
His first solo CD, Thirteen Friendly Numbers (’91), includes compositions for multitracked saxophones, whilst later releases focus on live performance, composition, amplification and saxophone-controlled feedback.
In 2011 he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists.
HCMF has twice commissioned him to compose for his own large ensembles. Other commissions include Elision (Australia), the Rova (USA) & Quasar (Canada) Saxophone Quartets, reconstructed Futurist Intonarumori (USA), and, most recently “Tarab Cuts” (based on pre-WWII Arabic recordings).
Recent collaborative projects include The Apophonics with Gino Robair and John Edwards and Anemone with trumpeter Peter Evans.
Butcher values playing in occasional encounters – ranging from large groups such as Butch Morris’ London Skyscraper and the EX Orkestra, to duo concerts with David Toop, Kevin Drumm, Thomas Lehn, Fred Frith, Okkyung Lee, Matthew Shipp and Akio Suzuki.