The Squid's Ear Magazine


Butcher, John: Bell Trove Spools (Northern Spy)

UK saxophone phenomenon John Butcher in 10 live solo recordings using the unique sonic environments of Richmond Hall, a Houston art gallery that has been compared to a bowling alley, and Issue Project Room's high-ceilinged marble room in Brooklyn, NY.
 

Price: $12.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 2.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



John Butcher-tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 765573685718

Label: Northern Spy
Catalog ID: CD-NS-032
Squidco Product Code: 16930

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2012
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at Richmond Hall, Houston, TX on April 14th, 2010 by Ryan Edwards. Recorded at Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY on November 7th, 2011 by Philip White.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"To say that John Butcher has made a science of the saxophone is no idle chatter. By the time he earned a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Imperial College in 1977, Butcher had already turned his attention to the saxophone. Over the ensuing decades, he has developed a thoroughly unique language based on an intense understanding of the properties of air moving through a tube. Few have done as much to advance the language of the saxophone since John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders and the fiery explosion of the 1960s than Butcher has.

In more recent years he has extended his sound chamber to include the whole of the space he's playing in - sometimes as large as an empty water cistern in Scotland, a 400-foot tall gas pipe in Germany or a lava-carved cavern in Japan. He has played in windstorms, allowing the elements to blow through the mouthpiece as he positioned and fingered the horn. And he has reduced the playing field to the horn's interior, using a microphone positioned inside the bell to create what is essentially a device for controlling and modifying feedback.

Northern Spy is proud to present two of Butcher's most recent experiments in moving soundwaves through space. On Bell Trove Spools we hear Butcher in two distinct situations: Richmond Hall, a Houston art gallery housing a permanent Dan Flavin collection that has been compared to a bowling alley; and the high-ceilinged marble room in Brooklyn which is the new home to Issue Project Room. Butcher is heard on his two saxes of choice, the soprano and the tenor, and suspended in space, fluid, challenging, at times melodic and always exciting.

In short, John Butcher knows how to work a room - and that's not about relating to the audience. In fact, there was no audience present for the Brooklyn session. Bell Trove Spools is just Butcher and a saxophone and spaces ready to receive. The results speak for themselves."-Northern Spy


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.


Track Listing:



1. A Place To Start 6:36

2. Padded Shadows 3:01

3. Willow Shiver 3:04

4. Perfume Screech 11:23

5. Unspeakable Damage 2:05

6. First Dart 3:47

7. Second Dart 4:00

8. Third Dart 3:25

9. Fourth Dart 5:40

10. Egg 3:26

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
John Butcher
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Solo Artist Recordings
Recordings by or featuring Reed & Wind Players
Recordings by or featuring Reed & Wind Players
Instant Rewards

Search for other titles on the label:
Northern Spy.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
Oyauchi, Aishi
Wrong Exit
(Armageddon Nova )
Under-recorded but legendary Japanese free improvising saxophonist Aishi Oyauchi in a double CD, performing on alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, and piano through 52 untitled and inventive pieces, from a few seconds in length to several minutes, presented as 7 composite tracks; part of the Armageddon Nova Series exploring radical free improvisation.
Davies, Rhodri / John Butcher
Routing Lynn
(Ftarri)
Chris Watson recorded John Butcher on acoustic & amplified sax and Rhodri Davies on acoustic & electric harp in Routing Lynn in Northumberland, then joined them live at a festival in Gateshead where the duo played alongside Watson's reworked recordings.
Butcher / Viltard / Prevost
"All But" - Meetings with Remarkable Saxophonists -- Volume 2
(Matchless)
The second volume of Eddie Prevost's 2011 series of concerts at Network Theatre, Waterloo, London meeting with remarkable saxophonists, here with John Butcher on tenor & soprano, with Guillaume Viltard on double bass.
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.
Moser, Michael
Resonant Cuts: (2 CDs AND BOOK)
(Edition Rz)
Book and 2 CDs documenting a 2010 concert and sound installation by Carsten Seiffarth and Michael Moser, with Polweschsel & guests (Burkhard Beins, Axel Dorner, &c) performing the concert.
Butcher, John / Rhodri Davies
Carliol
(Ftarri)
Dark and beautiful improvisation from saxophonist and electronics artist John Butcher and harpist Rhodri Davies, an incredible display of timbre, technique, and pacing.
Remote Viewers, The
Sinister Heights
(Remote Viewers)
UK's Remote Viewers latest blends electronics, rock, composition and improv in unusual and seductive ways, with guests John Edwards, Steve Noble, Caroline Kraabel, &c.
Weightless (Butcher / Edwards / Spera / Braida)
A Brush with Dignity
(Clean Feed)
Music inspired and fascinated by Italian cultural history, art, poetry, &c., from the collective quartet of John Butcher, John Edwards, Fabrizio Spera and Alberto Braida.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Guy, Barry Blue Shroud Band
All This This Here
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))
The title and text drawn from Samuel Beckett's last poem and meditation on language, "what is the word" and also his "Brief Dream", plus a poem from Barra O Seaghdha and two 18th century Edo Haikus, Barry Guy's exquisite work about life in transit through eight movements is performed with a stellar ensemble including Agusti Fernandez, Maya Homburg, Lucas Niggli, Percuy Pursgolve, &c.
Mezei, Szilard Trio & Gergely Ittzes
Stormy Silence / Viharos Csend
(FMR)
The Serbian trio led by violist Szilard Mezei with Istvan Csik on drums and Ervin Malina on double bass are joined by Hungarian flutist Gergely Ittzes performing on piccolo, alto and bass flutes, as Mezei's as Mezei's chamber-oriented free jazz trio reflects on the words of poet Szegedi-Szabo Bela.
Monicker (Scott Thomson / Arthur Bull / Roger Turner)
Spine
(Ambiances Magnetiques)
Legendary UK drummer Roger Turner and Canadian guitarist Arthur Bull, seasoned improvisers since the 70s and already working as a duo, joined with Montreal trombonist Scott Thomson during Thomson's 2017 residency in Halifax through suddenlyListen, touring and recording this album of propulsive and dynamic creative improvisation during their 2018 tour of Eastern Canada.
Fujiwara, Tomas
Triple Double
(Firehouse 12 Records)
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara's sextet is actually two trios interacting, with fellow drummer Gerald Cleaver, both Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook on guitar, and Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet and Ralph Alessi on trumpet, the pairings forming unisons and contrasts that add an unrestrained sense of enthusiasm and excitement to Fujiwara's sophisticated compositions.
Koch, Hans / Thomas Peter
Wucherungen
(Herbal International)
A dynamic set of wind and object improvisations from multi-reedist Hans Koch, using extended techniques to elicit a diverse and astounding range of sounds from his instruments, and Thomas Peter creating indescribable sound on amplified objects and live electronics.
Frey, Beuger / Duo Contour
Duos
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
The duo Contour of Stephen Altoff (trumpet) & Lee Forrest Ferguson (percussion) perform Antoine Beuger's "dedekind duos" dedicated to mathematician Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind; and Jurg Frey's "22 Sachelchen" or "small things", 22 focused miniature compositions.
Bourdreuil, Leila / Michael Foster
The Caustic Ballads
(Relative Pitch)
Two bright stars of DIY Brooklyn improvisers with unusual approaches to their instruments through extended techniques, processing and odd acoustic effects from saxophonist Michael Foster and cellist Leila Bourdreuil, together since 2009 creating racous & beautiful sound.
Remote Viewers, The
November Sky
(Remote Viewers)
UK's Remote Viewers with 4 saxophone players--David Petts, Caroline Kraabel, Andrian Northover & Sue Lynch--plus John Edwards on double bass and David Stockard on drums & percussion, blending jazz and modern chamber in lyrical, novel, and mysterious ways.
Rasmussen, Mette / Chris Corsano Duo
All The Ghosts At Once
(Relative Pitch)
The enduring sax and drum duo format is invigorated with US drummer Chris Corsano and Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, who push each other in free improvisation that uses insanely great technique while delivering a passionate and ecstatic dialog.
Shipp, Matthew Trio
Root Of Things
(Relative Pitch)
Pianist Shipp's long-standing trio with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey, complex and inspired compositions that makes modern creative approaches to jazz beautifully accessible and essential.
Ward, Jason
Euphoric Nightmares
(Ten Speed Records)
Guitarist Jason Ward takes the listener on a journey in sound through dark looping structures and hypnotic approach.
Merce, Sergio
Microtonal Saxophone
(Potlatch)
Using an alto saxophone where the original mechanisms have been replaced with water, gas & compressed air taps, saxophonist Sergio Merce can microtonally move the tuning of any note and create multiphonics, allowing him to play several sonic layers while using circular breathing.
Davidson, Scott with Shipp / Shorter / Bisio / Dickey
Dreamland
(NO LABEL)
Percussionist Scott Davidson, whose music is informed by jazz, classical Indian and Middle Eastern music, teamed up with pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist Michael Bisio, drummer Whit Dickey and reedist Lloyd Shorter for this album of world encompassing and rhythmic jazz.
Pisaro / Chabala
Black, White, Red, Green, Blue (Voyelles) [CASSETTE]
(Winds Measure)
Guitarist Barry Chabala's interpretation of composer Pisaro's piece, instructing the performer on structure and pitch but allowing the precise timing and sound to the player; plus a reworking of Chabala's recording taking advantage of cassette hiss and sine tones.
Machinefabriek
Stroomtoon II
(Herbal International)
After recording Stroomtoon in December 2011, electronic sound artist Rutger Zuydervelt wanted to capture more of the roughness and spontaneity of his live performances, so he recorded more material for this second installation.
Bartlett, Nathaniel
Trichotomic Ecology [CD + DVD]
(Sound-Space Audio Lab)
Electronic artist Nathaniel Bartlett (marimba, computer) is joined by Geoffrey Brady (percussion) and Nils Bultmann (viola) for a physical and temporal sound experience.
Postmarks (Boris Hauf / D Bayne / Martin Siewert)
National Parks
(Monotype)
The duo of saxophonist Boris Hauf and pianist D Bayne team up with guitarist Martin Siewert in this collection of tracks inspired by different U.S. national parks and their representation in iconic posters.
RLW & Srmeixner
Just Like A Flower When Winter Begins
(Monotype)
An interesting mixture of sound and spoken word originally recorded as a DJ set by RLW for a birthday celebration that was remixed with help from Stephen Meixner.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC