JOHN BUTCHER/MIKE
HANSEN/TOMASZ KRAKOWIAK
Equation
Spool/Field
SPF 303
ANDY MOOR/JOHN BUTCHER/THOMAS LEHN
Thermal
Unsounds
u04
Like the fabled jazz gunslingers of the 1960s -- saxophonist Sonny Stitt
comes most readily to mind -- free music practitioners have become inured
to travelling -- regularly moving from town to town and country to country
to play their music.
Unlike those 1960s jazz sharpshooters, who roamed like solitary quick
draw artists in the Old West, rounding up a posse of backing musicians
to support them in taming the music when they arrived in a location, free
improvisers are more syndicalist. Rather than seeing themselves as a single
playing with a group of deputized accomplices, they integrate themselves
into the posse to produce group music.
That's the case with British saxophonist John Butcher -- a well-known
itinerant musician -- on these CDs. Thermal finds him trading licks with
Andy Moor, guitarist for Dutch anarcho punks the Ex, and German synthesizer
virtuoso Thomas Lehn. Equation hooks up Butcher with two Torontonians,
percussionist Tomasz Krakowiak and Mike Hansen, who is also a visual artist,
manipulating an old-fashioned, school-issue record player. Both CDs not
only pinpoint Butcher's versatility in different situations, but also
highlight new performers adding their skills to the ongoing improv gestalt.
This many years down the road, of course, the British reedist usually
offers a distinctive outlay of notes and tones, which is why it's so interesting
to hear him with diverse partners.
Alive with the sort of sonic melding which leaves the listener wondering
who exactly played what, Butcher appears to be using more outlandish extended
techniques. That means that split tones, whistles, circular breathing,
flattement, tongue slaps and key pops are just the beginning of his output.
His irregular vibrations often make it seem like he's playing a duet with
himself as frequently as unconnected horn parts appear for a second and
then vanish.
Also notable is Hansen's choice of the prosaic record player, rather than
the sleek, techno turntables as his instrument of choice. More than a
contrast in terminology, his seasoned, school-issue machines seem to come
with a layer of classroom dirt that when amplifies through the system
create a static-pitted continuum beneath Butcher's improvisations, the
way Keith Rowe's lap guitar drones do in AMM's sessions. At times, in
fact, it appears as if Hansen's manipulating the stylus on the turntable
itself to get original sounds. Seldom does he indulge in hip-hop LP scratching,
and only then as a rhythmic counterpoint to some of Butcher's steady multiphonics
He does play records every so often however. On the fifth part of the
first suite, for example, playing an LP backwards so its output turns
to a sort of maniacal laughter, or sliding one section of an LP at what
could be 78 rpm, bisects Butcher's trilling multiphonics that soon turn
to speedy tongue slaps and irregularly vibrated, elongated pure reed tones.
Later the saxist introduces a complete set of circular breathing exercises,
moving up the scale as he spews out one whole note after another.
Elsewhere, seconds of recorded classical music apparently played at the
wrong speed for seconds brings out a burst of spetrofluctuation from Butcher's
horn that soon turn into wavering tones. At another point the recorded
phrase "Keep goin' baby" is repeated a couple of times following
a Butcher showcase. He had been breathing sounds through nose and diaphragm,
mixing in tongue slaps and honking echoes plus granulated spit tones.
Ground-down dirt and mechanized static from a record player can aurally
redefine itself as a sort of electronic pulse that appears in-and-out
of hearing range. Or at least it seems this way on the final track. Here
the reedist lets loose with prolonged reed kisses, hisses air through
his body tube without moving the keys and, closely miked, seems to have
invested as much in nose as mouth breathing. Finally after the expelled
sound increase in intensity and depth, he frees it from amplified turntable
rumble and vanishes into silence.
Before this happens there has been a hint of scratched percussion timbres
from Krakowiak's kit. That hint, unfortunately is the session's one deficiency.
By accident or design the percussion is mostly lost within the mix. There
are times as on the penultimate track when it appears as if Krakowiak's
about to drape himself over different sound sources à la the Spontaneous
Music Ensemble's John Stevens, but that impulse vanishes as quickly as
it appears. Otherwise some miscellaneous crackles, crinkles and crumbles
can be ascribed to him. There are point when the sound of a drum stick
being dragged across a cymbal -- and old improv trick -- can be heard;
as can a splatter of quick percussion taps; a single drum roll and the
appearance of a bell-like tones and syncopated rattles elsewhere. Perhaps
too it's he who appears to be stroking a balloon for new textures as well.
But his other contributions are absent or unheard.
Recorded in Amsterdam, the other CD avoids this percussion conundrum altogether
by not employing a stick man. Yet Lehn produces enough keyboard pressure
and Moor -- who comes from rock music -- creates enough driving bass notes
on his six-string to almost replicate a drum beat.
This rhythm is apparent on "Broken Fighter Plane" where the
synthesizer provides the ostinato on which Butcher's bird-like chirps
and vibrato rest. By the time the tempo has worked its way up to presto,
Butcher is wriggling out elongated whole tones, Lehn is crashing out freight-train
powered chords that are half electric piano and half drum set, while Moor
is firing focused guitar treatments into the stratosphere.
Earlier "Once Gravity Strikes for Real" appears to have guitar
lines that escaped from "Purple Haze," while Lehn's output approximates
that of a video game soundtrack. Among these oscillating synthesizer waves
and later rhythmic bass line from Moor, the reedist amplifies his aviary
chirps so that the flock's volume is intense enough to compete with the
mechanized drone and sine wave from Lehn.
Real musique concrète, "Teeth" begins with the grating
clamor of what sounds like all the instruments being pushed across the
studio floor. Soon afterwards, Lehn seems to lean into his keyboard forearm
first as the guitarist creates some slack key picking. Butcher's lofty
sax tones take on pinched ney or musette qualities. Then after what appears
to be the recording of card shuffling, Moor replicates a bass string emphasized
psychedelic freak-out solo, followed by breakneck percussion that make
one think Lehn created it on plastic milk cartons. Finally, the machinery
rumble and what could be the sound of a bow raking the guitar strings
subsides as Butcher's soprano soars over the synth vibrations.
Then there's "Pan Asian Love Buds" -- who comes up with these
titles? -- where Butcher's sweet legato tone soon turns gritty as he meets
mirrored faux Hawaiian guitar lines from Moor. As the plectrumist begins
pounding and emphasizing certain strings, Butcher uses sibilant overblowing
to amplify his tone. When the six-string output gets even speedier, he
triple tongues and introduces mouth percussion.
Not that everything here is shrill and clamorous. On "Imperfect Vehicle"
-- is that a jokey or a descriptive title? -- Butcher expels a stream
of circular breathes that only swell in volume as Moor's unvarying strumming
dissolves into spiky sound shards. Soaring and peeping, the reedist maintains
his clear tone even as the synthesizer output reaches a crescendo.
EuroImprov animal-like clawing sounds are front and centre on "Gongs
not Bombs." But Lehn soon alters those scrapes to produce drum machine-like
pulses, perfect accompaniment to the saxist's key clicks and tongue slaps
that resolve themselves into a jerky, Morse code replication . Meanwhile
Moor's wavering plucks seem to come from purposely-loosened guitar strings.
Fourteen tracks of inventive interaction, Thermal offers one example of
how recently acquainted musical gunslingers tackle improvisation. The
two suites on Equation offer another scenario in the new sheriff and posse
mode. Both are worth your scrutiny.
-- Ken Waxman
Track Listing: Equation: Noise Temperature Suite: 1. Part 1 1. Part 1;
2. Part 2; 3. Part 3; 4. Part 4 Standing Wave Suite: 6. Part 1 7. Part
2 8. Part 3 9. Part 4
Track Listing: Thermal: 1. Thermal; 2. Once Gravity Strikes for Real;
3. Miss Universal Happiness; 4. Weak Alarm; 5. Tongue; 6. Broken Fighter
Plane; 7. Pan Asian Love Buds; 8. Gongs not Bombs; 9. Cat Funeral; 10.
Quarry Traffic; 11. Imperfect Vehicle; 12. Graphite; 13. Teeth; 14. Thomas
Builds a Shelter
Personnel: Equation: John Butcher, tenor and soprano saxophones; Mike
Hansen, record player; Tomasz Krakowiak, percussion
Personnel: Thermal: John Butcher, tenor and soprano saxophones; Andy Moor,
guitar; Thomas Lehn, analog synthesizer