The Squid's Ear Magazine


Way Out Northwest (John Butcher / Tortsen Mueller / Dylan van der Shyff): The White  Spot (Relative Pitch)

The UK and Vancouver meet for a second release under the Way Out Northwest name - British saxophone master John Butcher with bassist Torsten Muller and drummer Dylan van der Schyff - recording for Sonarchy Radio.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



John Butcher-tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone

Torsten Muller-contrabass

Dylan van der Schyff-drums


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UPC: 616892076148

Label: Relative Pitch
Catalog ID: RPR1006
Squidco Product Code: 16667

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2012
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded by Doug Haire at Jack Straw Productions, Seattle on June 15th, 2008.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Performing as a trio when schedules, travel and economics allowed since 2007, the band has earlier roots. Butcher and van der Schyff started playing as a duo in the 2000 Vancouver Jazz Festival, documenting that in a recording the next day (Points, Snags and Windings on Meniscus), and had additional gigs in London at the Vortex and back in Vancouver in 2001.

Since moving back to Canada (2001) and making his base Vancouver, Müller has had many encounters with van der Schyff. You'll find them both in the adventurous company of Paul Rutherford and Ken Vandermark on Müller's own date Hoxha (Spool, 2005), or performing live together in van der Schyff's group, Bande X.Way Out Northwest played together as a trio for the first time in the 2007 Vancouver Jazz Festival, documented in their first recording (Way Out Northwest on Drip Audio, recorded live at the Western Front, Vancouver, BC).

This new release, The White Spot, afforded the trio the luxury of a Seattle studio recording in 2008 following several performances on the road 'way out northwest.'

The Musicians

• John Butcher - Since moving to London in the late '70s, has carved out a unique identity as an improviser and composer. Important collaborators include John Stevens, Derek Bailey, Chris Burn, John Russell, Phil Durant, Gino Robair, Axel Dörner, Xavier Charles, Georg Gräwe, Rhodri Davies, Gerry Hemingway, John Edwards, Peter Evans, Paul Lovens, Eddie Prevost and many others. Holds a Ph.D in theoretical physics, a unique qualification for his work in extreme acoustics.

• Torsten Müller - German born, Canada raised, worked extensively in duo with trombonist/cellist Günter Christman starting in the late '70s in Europe and North America. Has performed with Evan Parker, John Russell, Jon Rose, Joelle Léandre, John Zorn, Arto Lindsay, Lol Coxhill, Alex Schlippenbach, Paul Lovens, Phil Minton, Charles Gayle, Paul Rutherford, Ken Vandermark and Peter van Bergen.

• Dylan van der Schyff - A leading figure on the Vancouver new music/improv scene, van der Schyff has shared the stage and studio with a who's who of creative music, including George Lewis, Louis Sclavis, Evan Parker, Vinny Golia, Myra Melford, Michael Moore, Barry Guy, Butch Morris and many others."-Relative Pitch



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"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 - Derek Bailey, John Tilbury, John Stevens, The EX, Akio Suzuki, Gerry Hemingway, Polwechsel, Gino Robair, Rhodri Davies, Okkyung Lee, John Edwards, Toshi Nakamura, Paul Lovens, Eddie Prevost, Mark Sanders, Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Phil Minton, and Andy Moor - to name a few.

He is well known as a solo performer who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of place. Resonant Spaces is a collection of site-specific performances collected during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands.His first solo album, Thirteen Friendly Numbers, includes compositions for multitracked saxophones, whilst later solo CDs focus on live performance, composition, amplification and saxophone-controlled feedback.

HCMF has twice commissioned him to compose for his own large ensembles. Other commissions include for Elision (Australia), the Rova (USA) & Quasar (Canada) Saxophone Quartets, reconstructed Futurist Intonarumori (USA), "Tarab Cuts" (based on pre-WWII Arabic recordings, and shortlisted for the 2014 British Composer's Award) and "Good Liquor .." for the London Sinfonietta. In 2011 he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists.

Recent groupings include The Apophonics with Robair and Edwards, Anemone with Peter Evans, Plume with Tony Buck & Magda Mayas and a trio with Okkyung Lee & Mark Sanders.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, Claudia Binder, Paal Nilssen-Love, Thomas Lehn, Fred Frith, Keiji Haino, Ute Kangeisser, Matthew Shipp and Yuji Takahashi."

-John Butcher Website (http://www.johnbutcher.org.uk/Biog.html)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Torsten Müller (born November 25, 1957 in Hamburg, Germany) is a free improvising bassist in Vancouver, Canada. He plays a 5 string double bass. He lived in Bremen and Hamburg from 1976 to 2001, where he started his musical career and worked as a radio host and producer at Radio Bremen, a public radio and television broadcaster.

He came into the free improvised music scene in the mid 70s, first playing with Free Music Communion (an ensemble with guitarist Herbert Janssen and pianist Udo Bergner) recording three LPs on their own Fremuco Records label. He was a member of the large improvising ensemble King Ubu Orchestra for 10 years.

Torsten Müller has performed concerts all over the world with a diverse array of improvisers, including Evan Parker, John Russell, Jon Rose, Joelle Léandre, John Zorn, Arto Lindsay, Lol Coxhill, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Paul Lovens, Phil Minton, Charles Gayle, Melvin Poore, Paul Rutherford, Peter van Bergen and Alfred Harth.

He moved to Vancouver, Canada in 2001 where he has been performing at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and acts as co-curator of the annual Time Flies Improvised Music Festival. He plays in various ensembles, including Vancouver based drummer Dylan Van Der Schyff's Bande X and his own ensemble, Hoxha, with British trombonist Paul Rutherford and Dylan Van Der Schyff."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsten_M%C3%BCller_(musician))
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Dylan van der Schyff was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1970. He now makes his home in Vancouver, Canada, where he lives with his wife, cellist Peggy Lee, and their two children. Van der Schyff attended the schools of music at the University of Victoria and, briefly, McGill University; and he studied military drumming while with the Band of the Ceremonial Guard in Ottawa. He received his MA from Simon Fraser University and is currently engaged in graduate research in music psychology at the University of Sheffield in the UK.

As a performer and producer, van der Schyff has appeared on close to 100 recordings spanning the genres of jazz, electro-acoustic, improvised, experimental and new music; he has performed in almost every major centre in Europe and North America including international festivals in Berlin, Lisbon, Stockholm, New York, Chicago, Montreal, Trento (Italy) and Molde (Norway); and he has collaborated in numerous interdisciplinary projects involving theatre, dance and film. A partial list of notable performance and recording collaborators includes: George Lewis, Joelle Léandre, Dave Douglas, Mark Helias, Peggy Lee, Eyvind Kang, Nicole Mitchell, Brad Turner, Tony Wilson, Wayne Horvitz, Marilyn Crispell, Torsten Muller, Robin Holcolmb, Michael Moore, Ellery Eskelin, Sylvie Courvoisier, Rob Mazurek, Talking Pictures, Ken Vandermark, Paul Rutherford, John Butcher, Tobias Delius, Louis Sclavis, Evan Parker, Mark Dresser, Fred Frith, and Gary Peacock. Van der Schyff has also performed as a sideman with Roswell Rudd, John Zorn, Butch Morris, Misha Mengelberg, Georg Graewe, Oliver Lake, Wadada Leo Smith and the Kenny Werner Sextet with Randy Brecker.

Van der Schyff has served on the music faculty at Capilano University in Vancouver, Canada, since 2009. He also served on faculty at the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music between 2002-2005, and at the Vancouver Institute for Creative Music in 2006. Additionally, he has given seminars and workshops at the University of Indiana and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Van der Schyff has appeared on Austrian television and Swedish radio as well as NPR, the CBC and Radio Canada. Articles about his work as an improviser have appeared in publications such as Downbeat, Jazz Times, The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader, The Wire, Coda, and MUZIK."

-Capilano University (https://www.capilanou.ca/jazz-studies/bios/Dylan-van-der-Schyff/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Graminea 5:06

2. Mespili 3:51

3. Impressum 11:09

4. Hymenae 1 6:01

5. Schoepfiae 5:58

6. Earlianum 8:31

7. Hymenae 2 1:57

8. Mali 7:40

9. Saponariae 7:04

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Vancouver and Western Canada
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Trio Recordings
Canadian Composition & Improvisation

Search for other titles on the label:
Relative Pitch.


Recommended & Related Releases:
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