The Squid's Ear Magazine


Fictional Souvenirs (Thomas / Butcher / Solberg): Volatile Object (Trost Records)

Following their 2019 Astral Spirits album Fictional Souvenirs , the trio of Pat Thomas on piano & electronics, John Butcher on saxophones and Stale Liavik Solberg on drums take that album's title as their trio's moniker, releasing this exceptional second album of four insightful collective conversations captured live at Cafe Oto, in London in 2023.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Pat Thomas-piano, electronics

John Butcher-saxophones

Stale Liavik Solberg-drums


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UPC: 9120036684072

Label: Trost Records
Catalog ID: TROST 253CD
Squidco Product Code: 35185

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: Austria
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded live at Cafe Oto, in London, UK, on January 29th, 2023, by Billy Steiger.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The second album from the high-caliber improvising trio Fictional Souvenirs captures a visceral meeting between three of todays improvised music's most idiosyncratic, elusive figures. On Volatile Object, Pat Thomas (piano and electronics), John Butcher (saxophones), and Stale Liavik Solberg (drums) were recorded live at London's Cafe Oto in January of 2023.

Since emerging in the 1980s, saxophonist John Butcher has been one of the most important figures in a second wave of British free improvisation, adapting the innovations of pioneers like Derek Bailey and Evan Parker for a new generation. His musical language adapted those practices with a new emphasis on pure sound, including the use of amplification or reverb-rich spaces.

Thomas and Butcher first played together on a Derek Bailey Incus night in 1993. Solberg has been performing with Butcher for more than a decade, often in duo settings, but also alongside figures like bassist Barre Phillips and pianist Kaja Draksler. Still, their connection with Thomas stands out.

In 2019 Astral Spirits released the album that gave the trio its name, Fictional Souvenirs, a live session from the beloved and deeply missed London venue Iklectik, where Thomas eschewed piano in favor of a Moog Theremini and electronics. The results from the Oto concert captured on Volatile Object reinforce the special rapport of these musicians, elevating the connection heard on the debut album into something truly sublime.

The new album includes both sets from that thrilling evening, with Thomas on grand piano during the first half, electronics for the second. The instrumentation obviously alters the sound of each set, with the piano providing a more familiar thrust as Thomas injects thunderous left-hand patterns and skittery upper register runs with his other hand to illustrate the group's deep engagement with free jazz history. As much as Butcher is known for his original language, his roots in swing-driven sound peak through theproceedings, with forceful tenor blowing that locks in with Solberg's deliciously off-kilter propulsion. The electronics used in the second set reveal a radically different side of the trio, pushing towards a steadily evolving flow of sound-rooted abstraction.

Of course, what binds the two sets together is the fierce commitment to spontaneity and heightened listening. The members of the trio push one another out of any comfort zone just as much as their sounds magically coalesce.'-Trost


Artist Biographies

"Born 27 July 1960; Piano, electronics. Pat Thomas started playing at the age of 8 and studied classical music and played reggae. He began playing jazz at sixteen after seeing Oscar Peterson on television then listened to snatches of jazz on the radio before, in 1979, playing his first serious improvised gigs. From 1986 he played with Ghosts which was Pete McPhail and Matt Lewis.

In addition to programming his keyboards, Pat Thomas also utilises prerecorded tapes. He told Chris Blackford (1991), 'As far as the tapes are concerned I'll probably just sit in front of the TV and tape whatever's going on and so some editing afterward to decide what might be useful. ...But I don't actually put a label on each tape saying what's on there, so when I come to use them I don't know what I'm going to be playing. That obviously prevents me from setting things up. I pick them at random and see what happens. So I'm just as surprised as anybody else at what comes out'.

In 1988 he was awarded an Arts Council Jazz Bursary to write three new electroacoustic compositions for his ten-piece ensemble, Monads: Roger Turner and Matt Lewis, percussion; Pete McPhail, WX7 wind synthesizer; Neil Palmer, turntables; Phil Minton, voice; Phil Durrant, violin; Marcio Mattos, bass; Jon Corbett, trumpet; Geoff Searle, drum machines. The intention was to feature different aspects of electronics using improvisation so, for example, one piece - Dialogue - featured Pete McPhail and Neil Palmer, another concentrated on the interaction of percussionists and drum machines, and a third piece had Phil Minton and Jon Corbett improvising with a computer. The pieces were performed at the Crawley Outside-In Festival of new music in 1989.

Pat Thomas was invited by Derek Bailey to play in Company Week in 1990 and 1991 and he also took part in the Ist International Symposium for Free Improvisation in Bremen with the guitarist. He has been a member of the Tony Oxley Quartet (documented on Incus CD 15) and played in Oxley's Angular Apron along with Larry Stabbins, Manfred Schoof and Sirone at the 8th Ruhr Jazz Meeting and in the percussionist's Celebration Orchestra. He plays with Lol Coxhill in a range of combinations from duo to being a member of 'Before my time', is a member of Mike Cooper's Continental Drift, and he has a well established duo with percussionist Mark Sanders and a trio with Steve Beresford and Francine Luce. In 1992 Pat Thomas formed the quartet Scatter with Phil Minton, Roger Turner and Dave Tucker; funded by the Arts Council they toured the UK in 1993 and again at the beginning of 1997.

On the 'Festival circuit', Pat Thomas has appeared at: the Young Improvisors Festival at the Korzo Theatre, Den Haag (with Jim O'Rourke, Mats Gustafsson and Alexander Frangenheim); Angelica 95 in Bologna, Italy; the Stuttgart 5th Festival of Improvised Music 96 (with Fred Frith, Shelly Hirsch, Carlos Zingaro and others); and the 3rd International Festival 96 in Budapest (with Evan Parker, Phil Minton, John Russell and Roger Turner).

-EFI (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mthomas.html)
12/3/2024

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

"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)
12/3/2024

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

"Solberg holds a Masters degree in improvisation at the Norwegian Academy of Music and has since worked in the Norwegian and European improvisation scene, u. a. with Øystein Eldøy, Frode Gjerstad, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Eivind Lønning, Stine Janvin Motland, David Stackenäs, Joe Williamson and Per Zanussi in the formations Hot Four, Motsol, S / S Motsol and VCDC. He also played in a duo with John Russell and in a trio with Steve Beresford and Martin Kitchen, 2014 in trio with Alan Silva and Mette Rasmussen . With Paal Nilssen-Love, he organized the Blow Out! Festival in Oslo. [3] Solberg lives in Oslo."

-Wikipedia DE (translated) (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/StŒle_Liavik_Solberg)
12/3/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Run of Luck 15:11

2. Crimps 04:59

3. Heat of Absorption 24:05

4. Eye Level 04:15

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Collective Free Improvsation
Trio Recordings
John Butcher
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Recent Releases and Best Sellers
New in Improvised Music

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Trost Records.


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