Claudia Ulla Binder
In 1984 Claudia Binder and violinist Ma Lou Bangerter toured the UK with the Butcher/Durrant/Russell trio. Various playing encounters have continued through the years, including the 80s quintet Kwatz, but recently a more regular duo has taken off.
2010 concerts included Berlin's Exploratorium and the Unerhört Festival in Zürich - reviews varied.
Butcher stands as still as a statue, analysing a single sound to find the smallest nothingness, listening coolly like a doctor who hears a heartbeat with a stethoscope. This is especially appealing in combination with Claudia Ulla Binder, who cultivates a floating lyricism at the grand piano and, even when producing cascades of sounds, never appears violent.
Christoph Merki, Tagesanzeige
Those looking for this kind of musical liberation, must renounce the pleasures of life and can be assessed almost necrophiliac.
Neue Züricher Zeitung.
Under the Roof
Recorded at Radio DRS2, Zürich, Switzerland on 21 & 22 August 2008.
Claudia Ulla Binder - piano
John Butcher - soprano and tenor saxophone
Free Jazz | Point of Departure | all about jazz
Bill Hsu
CNMAT, Berkley, California.
Bill Hsu is a musician who builds software and works with electronics in performance. He is a teacher and researcher in the Department of Computer Science at San Francisco State University.
In 2003/4 he and Butcher worked at Steim and Kraakgeluiden on developing software for timbre recognition within Butcher's playing styles. This has now evolved into a performance duo. In 2006 they spent a week at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe - undertaking further research and giving a concert.
Phospheme: (Butcher / Hsu / Robair) performs sound/animation interactions - so far at ATA and ZKM.
Phospheme: Flayed Flock | Shimmer
Using timbre in a computer-based improvisation system (pdf download).
Christof Kurzmann
© uli templin - nickelsdorf, austria. 2005 John Butcher first worked in duo with lloopp player Christof Kurzmann in 2002, when he was invited to Berlin during Kurzmann's artist-in-residency at Podewil. Two years earlier, they had both taken part in a performance of Burkhard Stangl's opera Venusmond, in Chicago.
Recent concerts include the Nickeldorf Konfrontationen in Austria, and Ausland in Berlin.
The Big Misunderstanding between Hertz and MegaHertz
John Butcher - acoustic and feedback saxophones
Christof Kurzmann - lloppp and pick up
Cover painting by Esther Stocker
allmusic
| All About Jazz | Dusted
RED trio
© hélio gomez The RED Trio are the Portugese musicians:
Rodrigo Pinheiro - piano
Hernani Faustino - double bass
Gabriel Ferrandini - drums.
Butcher joined them for a recording session and tour of Portugal in 2010 - and has also played with them at concerts in Vigo and Saalfelden.
Empire
Rodrigo Pinheiro - piano
Hernani Faustino - double bass
Gabriel Ferrandini - drums and percussion
John Butcher - tenor and soprano saxophone
free jazz
| all about jazz | all about jazz
Matthew Shipp
© cafe oto
So far only one meeting -
at a Cafe Oto evening curated by Trevor Brent and broadcast on BBC Radio 3's "Jazz on 3".
At Oto
Recorded at Cafe Oto, London - February 2010.
Matthew Shipp - piano
John Butcher - soprano and tenor saxophone
burning ambulance | The Watchful Ear | improv sphere | all about jazz | Dalston Sound
Point of Departure
Akio Suzuki
© Osamu Enomoto
Strange Fruit, Oiso, Japan: November 2002.
John Butcher and Akio Suzuki first played in duo at Strange Fruit, at the invitation of Hisashi Terauchi,
in the coastal Japanese town of Oiso in 2002.
In 2006 Arika invited them for a RESONANT SPACES tour of 6 unusual playing spaces in Scotland and the Orkneys.
Each night they performed solo - and then came together for a short duo.
After another gap of 4 years, they again met in London at John Russells's 2010 Fete QuaQua - and amongst various group encounters managed to revisit their duo.
Otomo Yoshihide
© elena márquez - barcelona feb 2010
Butcher and Otomo have played five times in duo.
In Tokyo, London, Madrid and Barcelona.
Also in Quintet with Sachiko M, Evan Parker, Tony Marsh and John Edwards.
