Phil Minton and John Butcher first improvised together in 1984 - as part of a sound-poetry/music series in the upstairs room of the Roebuck, a pub on the Tottenham Court Road. In 2002 they released the duo CD Apples of Gomorrah, and most recently played in duo in Lodi, Italy in September 2006.

In the intervening years they've played together in a wide range of projects. In particular - a trio (active since 1991) with German guitarist Erhard Hirt and the "Phil Minton Quartet" (with Veryan Weston and Roger Turner).
This quartet continues to develop " mouthful of ecstasy " - a work based around texts from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. It was premiered in Bratislava (1994), and last performed in Katowica (Nov 2007).

slur a CD of free improvisations by the 4-tet has just been released.

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Apples of Gomorrah

Minton/Butcher
Studio recordings from 1999

full info :: Grob

read :: allmusic

Vocals and saxophone dance with each other; sometimes they waltz, sometimes they trash, elsewhere they achieve a Butoh-like purity in stillness.
Francois Couture

Slur

order CD from Emanem

Phil Minton - voice
John Butcher - saxophones
Veryan Weston - piano
Roger Turner - drums and percussion

this jamboree of like-minded bastard virtuosos.
Massimo Ricci - Touching Extremes

read :: all about jazz :: Bagatellen

Mouthfull of Ecstasy

Weston/Turner/Minton/Butcher
A composition/improvisation around text from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake
Studio recording from 1996

What Jonny Cash was to Folsom prison, these guys are to Bedlam.
Art Lange - Pulse magazine

full info :: Victo

read :: allmusic :: CODA

Two Concerts

Minton/Butcher/Hirt
Concert recordings from 1995
Musique Action, Vandoeuvrve, France and Free Music Festival, Antwerp, Belgium

Markus Müller's liner notes

This music is mythic - like an urban Utopia. Jazziz

full info :: FMP

visit :: Erhard Hirt